Popular singing ensemble Musicalé, this year celebrating 25 years of music-making, has handed over cheques totalling almost £1,900 to three local causes.
Representatives from Isle of Man Live at Home Schemes, Manx Blind Welfare Society and the Isle of Man Agricultural Benevolent Trust dropped in on a rehearsal to receive the cheques.
Musicalé member and publicity officer Geoff Collier said: ‘Although we’ve performed at a huge variety of venues and events over the last 25 years, the vast majority of our performances tend to be for charitable causes, and we decided this year, to help celebrate our silver jubilee, we’d really push the boat out with our fundraising efforts and help make a difference to some of the causes close to our hearts.
‘So we’ve been holding some really special events this past year to mark this milestone. The £810 we’ve handed over to the Live at Home Schemes was the result of a wonderful musical soirée at The Sound Cafe; we had a fantastic day singing in all 17 parish churches during the first ever ‘Parish Squawk’, in which we raised £675 for Manx Blind Welfare Society; and we really wanted to do our bit for the stricken farmers, so we put together a special concert that raised over £408.
‘We want to thank everyone who has supported and joined us in our anniversary celebrations. Looking at our diaries, we have one of our busiest years ever coming up, so at this rate, the next 25 years will rush by as quickly as the first!’
Our picture shows Musicalé chairman Helen Prescott and treasurer Kathryn Glover alongside Graham Crowe of the Isle of Man Agricultural Benevolent Trust, Jan Farrell from Isle of Man Live at Home Schemes and Ian Cooil of Manx Blind Welfare Society. musical director John Riley, accompanist Jennifer Bird and choir members look on.