by Mya Dundzila
My current home group, the Penobscot Bay Ringers (PBR), just finished up a busy ringing year with our spring concert weekend.
Mya Dundzila
Regional Membership Coordinator
A bass ringer landed a great new job with an unpredictable schedule. This would be the first gap. A charter member decided to retire to care for a terminally ill spouse. Another member took a tumble resulting in broken limbs, some of which were arms. Do any of these situations sound familiar to your group? PBR faced some difficult decisions.
We could have packed up the 5th octave. We could have pulled out last year’s music. But PBR soldiered on. You can call it resiliency or compromise or adaptation. A new ringer joined the bass section. A semi-local sub filled a spot for the spring season. Through brilliant bell and position re-assignments, our director Amy Rollins ensured PBR fulfilled our concert obligations and kept all our bells on the table.
All of these events (new job, illness, injury) are just a few of many life changes that everyone can experience. The impacts are felt most by the individual. The group is also affected by the loss of a valued ringer. I know most groups face the unwanted challenge of trying to fill unexpected vacancies.
And this was an even year which meant PBR and 120 other ringers converged on Auburn, Maine, for the Maine Spring Ring–specifically the Auburn Middle School which served as a recovery center for the Lewiston-Auburn massed shooting tragedy. One of the massed pieces was Michael Helman’s “Prayer for the Innocents” (written in response to the 2016 Orlando mass shooting incident). Another massed selection was “Change Ring Prelude on Divinum Mysterium” which was new to several PBR ringers. We also performed a solo piece at the Spring Ring final concert. We would have missed all of this had our director and ringers not persevered through the early challenges.
What does resiliency look like in your group? Is it moving to a different ringing position? Is it learning a new technique? Is it ringing for a new audience or in a new venue?
Epilogue of sorts: The new bass ringer treasured the opportunity to ring the bottom fifth octave. The spring sub got more experience with 4-in-hand ringing. A full ensemble ringer agreed to fill in with the smaller ensemble and really enjoyed the different ringing style. Many good things resulted from the necessity of trying something new.
At our spring concert weekend, PBR dedicated a factory-fresh 2-octave set of bells towards our education efforts in the community. PBR will loan these bells out to schools in the local area. The bells were purchased through a recent grant award. The new bells were dedicated in honor of a charter member and spouse because of their founding and continuing contributions to the group.
There’s one other thing: Amidst all this excitement, PBR also applied for and received a grant to attend the National Seminar in Hartford in July. Stay tuned for the PBR National Seminar experience in my next column.
A bass ringer landed a great new job with an unpredictable schedule. This would be the first gap. A charter member decided to retire to care for a terminally ill spouse. Another member took a tumble resulting in broken limbs, some of which were arms. Do any of these situations sound familiar to your group? PBR faced some difficult decisions.
We could have packed up the 5th octave. We could have pulled out last year’s music. But PBR soldiered on. You can call it resiliency or compromise or adaptation. A new ringer joined the bass section. A semi-local sub filled a spot for the spring season. Through brilliant bell and position re-assignments, our director Amy Rollins ensured PBR fulfilled our concert obligations and kept all our bells on the table.
All of these events (new job, illness, injury) are just a few of many life changes that everyone can experience. The impacts are felt most by the individual. The group is also affected by the loss of a valued ringer. I know most groups face the unwanted challenge of trying to fill unexpected vacancies.
And this was an even year which meant PBR and 120 other ringers converged on Auburn, Maine, for the Maine Spring Ring–specifically the Auburn Middle School which served as a recovery center for the Lewiston-Auburn massed shooting tragedy. One of the massed pieces was Michael Helman’s “Prayer for the Innocents” (written in response to the 2016 Orlando mass shooting incident). Another massed selection was “Change Ring Prelude on Divinum Mysterium” which was new to several PBR ringers. We also performed a solo piece at the Spring Ring final concert. We would have missed all of this had our director and ringers not persevered through the early challenges.
What does resiliency look like in your group? Is it moving to a different ringing position? Is it learning a new technique? Is it ringing for a new audience or in a new venue?
Epilogue of sorts: The new bass ringer treasured the opportunity to ring the bottom fifth octave. The spring sub got more experience with 4-in-hand ringing. A full ensemble ringer agreed to fill in with the smaller ensemble and really enjoyed the different ringing style. Many good things resulted from the necessity of trying something new.
At our spring concert weekend, PBR dedicated a factory-fresh 2-octave set of bells towards our education efforts in the community. PBR will loan these bells out to schools in the local area. The bells were purchased through a recent grant award. The new bells were dedicated in honor of a charter member and spouse because of their founding and continuing contributions to the group.
There’s one other thing: Amidst all this excitement, PBR also applied for and received a grant to attend the National Seminar in Hartford in July. Stay tuned for the PBR National Seminar experience in my next column.
Mya Dundzila
Regional Membership Coordinator
