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Singers are lending their voices; From the Townships to Africa |
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A group of dedicated Townshippers are lending their voices to a cause that bridges continents. The Brome County Women’s Institute, along with the Pot Pourri Choir, are teaming up to present their spring concert Saturday, a fundraiser for the local Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign.
The group, linked to the Stephen Lewis Foundation, sends financial support to grandmothers in African countries tasked with raising the millions of children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic.
The Sherbrooke chapter, famous for its tiny handmade angels sold at local events across the Townships, will send proceeds from this event and other fundraising efforts to pay for food, shelter, school uniforms, coffins and grief counselling for the estimated 13 million orphans and their older caretakers in African countries.
Jane Hamilton, a Grannie and one of the event’s organizers, promises an enjoyable afternoon of entertainment and social awareness, with the help of some good tunes.
“(Pot Pourri) has a very eclectic program, they’re very popular,” Hamilton said. “They used to be heavily into the classics, but now they’ve expanded their repertoire to some folk, jazz and broadway numbers.”
The Pot Pourri Choir, which began as a mixed chorus based in Mansonville, has now evolved into a women’s choir drawing singers from all over the Montérégie, under the director of Susan Reininger.
Entertainment aside, Hamilton is hoping the event will also generate enough interest to create a new Grandmothers chapter in the Montérégie, to save grandmothers in her neck of the woods from having to drive into Sherbrooke for many meetings and events. There are more than 200 grandmothers groups across Canada; each develops its own focus and fundraising activities.
The Stephen Lewis Foundation is similarly starting to organize Youth to Youth groups, too, as many young AIDS orphans are raising their own younger siblings where there is no grandmother to help. And there are Canadian youth groups beginning to form to send support to their African peers.
“We’ve heard that this is the next wave of help sprouting up,” Hamilton said, “because there are so many young people in Africa raising their families.”
Hamilton is hoping young Townshippers will think seriously about starting their own groups, particularly already-formed youth groups looking to take on new projects.
Stephen Lewis was the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa from June 2001 until the end of 2006. Now the chair of the board of the Stephen Lewis Foundation in Canada, Lewis also became the recipient of an honourary degree from Bishop’s University last weekend.
The Pot Pourri spring ’08 concert will be held on Saturday, June 7 at 3 p.m. at the Knowlton United Church (234 Knowlton Road). Tickets are $12 at the door or $10 in advance at Libraire le livre d’or and Boutique Nath’Elle in Sutton, Brome Lake Books in Knowlton and Edwards Store in West Brome. Children under 12 get in for free, but donations are always welcome.
Hamilton reminds concert-goers that information on the Grandmother’s campaign will be available at the back of the church on Saturday, as well as AIDS angels being for sale (made by the Sherbrooke Grannies.)
Anyone interested in joining a local grandmothers group can call Jane Hamilton at 450-538-5294 and, she adds, “You don’t have to be a grandmother.”
By Sarah Rogers
June 5, 2008 |
Montreal Canadiens
