Out of the blue I received a most wonderful phone call. It was one of those calls that makes you feel good and makes you appreciate what you’re doing and who has done it before you.
The intercom in my office beeps and the administrative assistant for the church informs me that someone would like to talk to me about handbells. When I pick up the receiver, I’m in for a treat—a long conversation with a Guild member whose membership goes back about 50 years.
Eleanor Tasker introduces herself, says she’s 89 years old, and she has been involved in handbells for years. In fact, she’s still directing choirs at First Lutheran Church in South Sioux City, Nebraska. She ran a festival in Lake Okoboji, Iowa, from 1964–96, and she has a 12th Night ring in her community that has been going strong for 35 years. We talked about names from the past—Dick Litterest, Joan Shull, Betty Jo Wilcox, and Mary Kettlehut, whom she admired and appreciated. I told her I knew all of those folks and had the opportunity to have lunch with Joan just a few years ago when I went to pick up something at her home. (All four of these individuals were very active in Area 8 when I was first getting started with the Guild.) Eleanor’s enthusiasm and love for handbells was clearly infectious. Can you imagine how many people Eleanor has touched in her many years of handbell service?
She is a faithful Overtones reader and, after reading one of my articles, she wanted to call and thank me for all that I do for the Guild. I’m thinking that I’m the one that should be thanking her for all of her years of service. Our organization is made up of a host of people like Eleanor, who serve for years and years and receive little recognition. These are the unsung heroes of Handbell Musicians of America for which we could never fully express our appreciation.
On the other end of the spectrum, in January, I was blessed to lead some handbell/liturgical art workshops for the National Conference on Sacred Music. It was during one of the handbell sessions that we had a conversation about the joys, pitfalls, struggles, and successes of handbell ministry. Participants asked questions about how to repair a bell, how to creatively incorporate bells into worship, or how to keep choirs motivated. There were also several people in the session that had never worked with a handbell choir but were now serving a church with an established program. Questions from these folk included: 1) How do I get started? 2) Where do I learn about this stuff? and 3) Am I doing this right? Most of these individuals graduated from major colleges/universities with degrees in choral conducting.
There aren’t many people in our organization that actually have a degree in handbell conducting. Handbell programs find directors in a variety of ways: Perhaps they played bells and fell in love with them and offered to help out, perhaps they could play the piano and therefore knew more than anyone else about conducting, or perhaps they inherited a bell program. What is common in all of our handbell leaders is that they had to start somewhere. Like Eleanor, some fell in love with handbells and charted a new path. Like the participants at the music conference, some “were thrown into it.”
These leaders come into our organization with a sense of anticipation for the opportunity to make music in new ways and to discover a new joy. Can you imagine how many people will be touched by these handbell leaders as they grow to serve their ringers? Handbell Musicians of America is here to help and support both the longtime leader/ringer and the brand new leader/ringer. The ideas and skills of our longtime members are available to support our newest members. The creativity and fresh ideas of our newest members are available to challenge and reenergize some of our longtime members. What’s so exciting is that we are all together working to promote this amazing art.
So with appreciation for those who have led the way, and with the anticipation of those just coming into our organization, we move forward to develop a future that looks incredible. Who knows how many we have touched, or how many we may yet touch through our participation in Handbell Musicians of America?
If you have a story of appreciation or anticipation, please email me. Or just give me a call.
Ed Rollins [email protected]
Ed Rollins President |
