Page 22 - Fall 2021 Tags and Swipes

Tags and Swipes, Fall 2021

Royal River Chorus

Royal River Chorus has continued to stay busy and engaged throughout the summer months. Most members
have steadfastly attended weekly rehearsals outside, but we’ve also been enjoying all that our great state of
Maine has to offer. June, July and August can very easily call you away to the beauty of the ocean, lakes and
mountains. While we’ve done our best to take full advantage of our coastal and inland vistas, we’ve also
kept our singing strong and meaningful.

In June, we hosted our first guest night since long before the pandemic. A core group of people worked
extra hard getting our recruitment messaging out to our social media platforms, letting folks know who we
are and how excited we’d be for them to come find out more. We were thrilled to have nine guests join us in
song. We sang entertaining tags, rollicking rounds and songs from our repertoire, as well as introduced them
to our new member audition song. Since that night, several guests have returned, and new ones keep
popping in. We hope to have a few new member auditions in the near future!

Speaking of thrilling moments, our chorus was very proud to hear that our very own Mariah Blodgett was
honored when her beautiful logo submission won the Region 1 logo design contest (check out the new
design at the Region 1 website). As our director, Rhonda Williams, says, “How lucky are we to have
amazing and diverse talent in our midst?” We’ve boasted about Mariah’s creativity on so many occasions.
She’s does incredible work, both professionally and for our chorus, in print and online, and now she’s
sharing that talent with the region.

In “normal times,” July is our busiest month, as we prep for and participate in our largest fundraiser and a
Maine summertime staple, the Yarmouth Clam Festival. Every year, over a three-day weekend, we run a
booth, selling battered clams and singing ditties to an enthusiastic crowd of tourists and locals. As with
many other venues, the festival was cancelled in 2021. The city of Yarmouth, not willing to completely
throw in the towel, started looking for other ways to keep community spirits high and continue supporting
nonprofits. The Yarmouth Community Services group scheduled a series of “Mini Fests” throughout July
and August, and Royal River Chorus partnered with them to sell baked goods, hotdogs, popcorn and water
during two summer concerts, featuring the Wicked Good Band and the Maine Marimba Ensemble. We had a
great time at both concerts, and it was fun and fulfilling to keep our connection to this special summer
tradition.

One of our quartets, Flashpoint, also found a fun way to keep singing outside by pairing up with another
summer tradition, baseball. In late July, after waiting through a rain delay, they had the honor of singing the
national anthem at a Portland Sea Dogs baseball game. Knowing our chorus members have sung the anthem
for many years through rain or shine at the Clam Festival, a little rain certainly didn’t deter Flashpoint.

Also this summer, a few hardy members decided it was time to tackle a fairly daunting costume project. Our
previous director had been storing about 40 years worth of costumes and had moved them all along with her
when she and her husband built a new home a few years ago. Up into the attic they went. And a very warm
attic it is too. Bag after bag, hanger after hanger, fabric bolt after fabric bolt, shoe box after shoe box...down
the ladder they came. Items were sorted, and one car was stuffed full, from stem to stern (I know, boat
analogy) with items for donation.

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North Atlantic Region 1 Sweet Adelines