FEELING GOOD - Summer Strum promotes wellbeing through music, community, inclusion and charitable giving
Greetings Strummers! Welcome to our new weekly Monday Missive!
We are so pleased to be doing it all again this year! It's our third year in Hoylake but actually this is year 5 of the Summer Strum and a good reason to celebrate we think. Were we all married we would be giving each other presents of wood (*raised eyebrows*) - hey, who knows what goes on inside those tents! "What happens at Summer Strum stays at Summer Strum" right? Anyway - tenuous link of the day ... most ukuleles are made of wood ... hmm... right!
From early morning bugling to warming our whistles it's all about feeling good at the Summer Strum
Us ukulele players - we all know what it's about. You pick up that happy little instrument and it brings an instant smile to your face. You team up with a bunch of other ukulele players and that warm feeling spreads into parts of your body that you may have long forgotten about - usually in the guise of tendonitis or ukulele players elbow! You do your thang in public and that feeling explodes. Your audience grabs a hold of it, they take it home with them, they might get themselves a ukulele, they join a ukulele group and so the cycle continues until the whole world is infected by it and everybody has a room in their homes devoted to their ukulele library!
It's a nice idea yes? "If everyone played the ukulele, the world would be a better place" - that's what ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro thinks and that's what Summer Strum adheres to.
We have certainly seen over our 5 years an exponential growth in the ukulele community which shows no sign of slowing down - new faces and groups are cropping up all the time and old faces are forging ahead - and long may it continue. Ukulele smiles are literally everywhere and if Summer Strum can help create more then it is a job well done.
What is even more special about this growing community is not only its' own generosity (we personally cannot thank folk enough for attending our fundraising events and donating to the Just Giving page and playing for free over the festival weekend) but also the amount of fundraising you all do year round. When you spread that "feeling" in public it makes people dig deep into their pockets to give generously to your many supported charities - Claire House Children's Hospice, Wirral Hospice St Johns, MIND, Shelter, Northern Lights Children's Charity, Ukulele Kids Club, Crosby Riding for the Disabled to name just a few.
Thank you all for your support over the past five years and we hope to see you all again in the Summer! July 8th-9th! Until next week's Monday Missive - sun salutations to you all xx
Emma and Pat xxx
And raising/giving money to charity makes people feel good - it's a fact. This week alone I (Emma) have helped raise money for Red Nose Day and given to Comic Relief, Unicef and Fruitcake's surgery - and yes - I feel virtuous ... it's never enough but it is something. Like exercise - a little is better than nothing at all.
Summer Strum aims to bring all this together into one place - Hoylake Rugby Club. We support MIND and Wirral Hospice St John's and we support FEELING GOOD and YOU. We want you to feel great and included and creative and virtuous. We want you to feel part of a great big happy family and help raise money for charity by giving as much as you are able - beit time or money!
Thank you all for your support over the past five years and we hope to see you all again in the Summer! July 8th-9th! Until next week's Monday Missive - sun salutations to you all xx
Emma and Pat xxx
