Mountain Ringing Weekend - Hendersonville!!

Kathryn Tucker, Joy Franklin, Derek Wilsden, Don Johnes,

Sally Cook and Bill Buckner celebrate Joy's first quarter peal rung inside.

Congratulations, Joy!

The Atlanta and Marietta ringers joined forces with the Hendersonville, NC ringers for a weekend (15-17 August 2008) of ringing and social fun, including training and quarter peal attempts.

Hendersonville, NC

St. James

Sunday, 17 August 2008

1260 Plain Bob Doubles

1. Sally Cook

2. Joy Franklin

3. Derek Wilsden (c)

4. Kathryn Tucker

5. Bill Buckner

6. Don Johnes

First quarter peal inside: 2

Rung in honor of the 30th anniversary of the installation of the bells.

See also http://www.nagcr.org/news.html

Quarter peal in memoriam

Before regular Monday night practice on August 11, six ringers gathered to ring a quarter peal in memory of Mark Phillips' father, who died recently. Thanks go to Sally Karkula for organizing the quarter and making sure that everyone showed up on time! Also, thanks to Diane Campion not only for stepping in as a replacement for Mary Platt, who was injured in a running accident, but for providing the photo above.
As ringers, we do what we do for the pure love of the ringing, for the intellectual challenge and to provide a service to our church. But the other aspect of ringing is the sense of community and closeness we have as a group, and the knowledge that, in the end, we always "have each other's backs", as those goofy kids say today!

Marietta, GA
St. James' Church
Monday, Aug. 11, 2008
1260 PB Doubles in 39 minutes

1. Sally Karkula
2. Kathryn E Tucker (c)
3. Diane K Campion
4. Derek J Wilsden
5. Charley Heilker
6. Alice Gough Heilker

Rung in memory of Major William Marcus Phillips Jr. , USAF (Ret.), father of Mark Phillips, a fellow ringer.

First As Conductor -- Cathy Brown

Celebrating the birth of granddaughter for Mary Platt

Marietta, GA
St James
Monday 21 July 2008

1260 Plain Bob Triples

1 Judith Smith
2 Matthew Brown
3 Mary Platt
4 Kathryn E Tucker
5 Charley Heilker
6 Derek Wilsden
7 Catherine P Brown ( C )
8 Alice Gough Heilker

In honor of the birth of Sydney Rahne Tallent, granddaughter of 3 on July 13, 2008; 9lbs, 6oz, 21in!

First quarter as conductor.

Congratulations to Cathy Brown, adding another to North Georgia’s growing pool of conductors.

Lots to Celebrate on the Fourth of July!

Congratulations Susan and Charley

Friday, 4 July, 2008, St James
1260 Doubles (2m.)
(780 Grandsire, 480 Plain Bob)

1 Susan A. Lagrone
2 Mary Platt
3 Derek Wilsden ( C )
4 Lyn Barnett
5 Charley Heilker
6 Alice Heilker

For America’s 232^nd Independence Day Anniversary.
Also in celebration of the 56th birthday of 5.
First quarter not as cover, 1.

FOLLOWED UP by a delightful and delicious pot luck at Cathy and Chris Brown's home, with Chris at the grill. Then on to the Famous Marietta Fireworks on the Square (for those who did not get up at 4:30 am to run the Peachtree Road Race).

Marietta Change Ringing Bells Featured on WABE

Local NPR affiliate, WABE in Atlanta (90.1), is again featuring the St. James change ringing bells and the interview with Kathryn Tucker on "Atlanta Sounds". This feature has been broadcast off and on for several months and is providing great publicity for and public awareness of change ringing in our area. Kudos to all who made the interview happen!

If you have missed it on the radio, listen to it here:

http://www.pba.org/programming/programs/atlantasounds/1719/

The Heilker Family Trio

Congratulations to Alice upon ringing her first Quarter away from cover, the first for the Heilker family as a threesome in the same Quarter, and Best Wishes to Emily as she embarks upon studies in Europe next month. It served also as between-morning Eucharists service-ringing.

MARIETTA

St James’ Church

Sunday, 24 May, 2008

1260 Plain Bob Doubles, in 38 minutes

1. Alice Gough Heilker
2. Derek Wilsden (C)
3. Charley Heilker
4. Emily Heilker
5. Valdeane Brown
6. Mary Platt

First away from cover: 1. First as cover (!) 6.

Best Wishes to 4 on her 21^st Birthday and as she leaves for a year of studies in Europe.

St. Luke's Ringers Host Tomorrow's Learners

St. Luke's Guild of Change Ringers is always on the lookout for ways to introduce ourselves to the parish. One way to do this is to invite the Sunday School classes -- from kindergarten to 4th grade -- to visit the tower. Through April and into May, each class will get its turn to climb up to the bells and have a go at chiming or ringing a bell during the Sunday School hour.

This last Sunday, April 5th, was the first of the Sunday School classes, the 2nd and 3rd graders. Unlike many adults, most of the kids know no fear, so for an hour the tower is filled with eagerness and enthusiasm to see and try everything. Our spiral staircase leading up to the dead room and belfry is an adventure in itself for most kids this age. Sawyer Gosnell, our steeplekeeper, has become quite expert at managing 6 or 7 kids at once standing next to the bell frame to see all the bells hanging in the frame, watching one of the larger bells turn over several times, and fielding hundreds of questions.

Paper and crayons are available for drawing pictures of the experience. The pictures, many of them very interesting and quite dramatic, are displayed in the tower stairwell. Bell shaped cookies, of course, top off the visit.

In addition to entertaining and educating our St. Luke's kids about our bells, their visits are also providing us with chances to audition kids for the “children’s chiming band” we are developing to involve younger parishioners in service ringing as well as to introduce them to change ringing. It is our hope that this generation will grow up thinking of tower bells as a regular part of church -- a place they can look forward to being a part of!

Judith Smith