THE latest community news from Aberystwyth.

AberOpera

AberOpera will return to the Old College on Friday, 3 March. They are a group of friends who have appeared together in many Aberystwyth choirs and productions over the years and, on this occasion, will present a programme of well-known opera solos, duets and choruses. The concert begins at 7.30pm. Doors open at 7pm, the entrance fee is £5 and tickets will be sold at the door. Proceeds from the AberOpera’s Old College concerts are donated to the University Charity of the Year; this year’s charity is Mind Aberystwyth. The takings from the interval bar, generously sponsored by Morrisons, are added to the amount donated.In former years, the concerts have been able support the Air Ambulance and the Aberystwyth branch of the RNLI and the group look forward to supporting other local charities in the future.

St David’s Day Parade

ABERYSTWYTH’s 2017 St David’s Day Parade will be held at 1pm on Saturday, 4 March, and follows the same route as in all previous years.‘Pibau Tawe’, a new Welsh bagpipes trio from the Swansea Valley, will lead the parade.

He will be followed by Glan Davies, the local well-known entertainer and man who has done so much for charity in the area as this year’s tywysydd (guide).

Following will be members of Aberystwyth’s different choirs who will sing as they parade to the sound of Aberystwyth Silver Band and Samba Agogo. The ceremony at Llys-y-Brenin will be led by BBC Radio Cymru presenter, Geraint Lloyd and Derrick Adams, of Eglwys Efengylaidd Cymru will give the blessing.There will also be a special performance by the new local male quartet, Bois y Fro who will soon be releasing a CD.During the morning there will be free live music on Sgwâr Owain Glyndwr with local male voice choir, Meibion y Mynydd at 10.30am, Mari Matthias at 11.15am and Bois y Fro at noon.Building on the success of last year’s events and stalls, Cered, the county’s Welsh language initiative, will host a whole set of free events and workshops for the whole family at the bandstand.They will include story time for babies and toddlers, a ukulele workshop and also performance by Ysgol Plascrug Ukelele Band.

There will also be live rock music by under 16-year-old y Fflamau Gwyllt from near Tregaron, music by Sipsi Gallois, Welsh clog-dancing workshop with Alaw Griffiths and an art workshop based on the legend of the drowned Cantre’r Gwaelod under the guidance of Arad Goch. Pipau Tawe will give a free gig at 3.30pm at the Llew Du pub which will be followed by an open Welsh folk music session so bring your instruments.Author, and first headmaster of Penweddig High School, Gerald Morgan, who was the parade’s tywysydd (guide) in 2015, will be at Waterstones’ Bookshop to sign his latest book, ‘The Pursuit of Saint Davies’. There will be a religious service at 10am on Sunday morning at the Morlan centre.

For the second year, the parade will host a St David’s Day-themed window display competition, won last year by Siop y Pethe. The parade organisers have also extended an open invitation to people of different nationalities to take part in this year’s parade to show that Aberystwyth and Wales is a warm house for people of all backgrounds who settle here and respect and enjoy our language and identity.

Sweeney Todd

PARENTS, pupils and members of the public have been invited to a performance of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at Penglais School.Wednesday, 1 March, is the opening night, when the audience will be treated to a musical storm of love, loss, murder and baking. Four more performances will follow, where you will be entertained by a cast and chorus of enthusiastic, talented students from Years 7 to 13, including a few familiar faces. Evening performances starting at 7.30pm run until 4 March and there is a matinee on 4 March starting at 2pm.

Rotary Club

THE club gave a warm welcome to its meeting this week to Wendell Junia, a microbiologist at Bronglais Hospital, who spoke of his experiences as a volunteer medical worker on two five-week stints in Sierra Leone at the height of the Ebola crisis from November 2014 to November 2015.The first case of Ebola in West Africa was traced back to an 18-month-old boy in Mollando in Guinea, who became ill on 26 December 2013, probably from contact with infected bush meat. Since the disease was unknown in that part of Africa, it took until 23 March 2014 for an emergency to be declared, by which time cases had been reported in Conakry, the capi-tal of Guinea, and neighbouring countries, including Sierra Leone. The strain was identified as identical to that which caused the outbreak in Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1976.It soon became apparent that a major contributing factor to the spread in West Africa was the particular way in which families came together to honour their dead and to prepare their bodies for burial. A massive international health effort was mobilised, in which the UK played a significant part in providing funding and training through the Department of International Development and UK charities, including Save the Children. Wendell worked with agencies from other countries such as USA, Ireland and Denmark. He especially praised local Sierra Leone health workers, who at great risk to themselves went out to communities to isolate cases and worked with bereaved families to ensure safe burial.The protective suits worn by health workers, as seen on pictures worldwide, could be worn for no more than two hours at a time, in view of the debilitating dehydration they caused.In addition, the UK provided a Royal Navy ship with extensive medical facilities to treat cases offshore near Freetown and built five treatment centres across Sierra Leone, with support from the Royal Engineers.The international effort eventually proved successful in limiting the outbreak to Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, apart from a very small number of cases in other countries caused by contact with sick people from these countries and health workers returning home. The outbreak was eradicated by the end of 2015, almost two years after it first broke out and following the death of some 10,000 people in the three countries. In thanking Wendell for his talk, Lindsay Fletcher, chair of the club’s international committee this year, acknowledged the bravery and dedication of all who contributed to ending the outbreak. The club had provided funding to a number of projects in the area affected and had set aside money to support to a children’s hospi-tal in Liberia.He informed members that Wendell was shortly to undertake a placement in Papua New Guinea to work on TB control there and wished him every success in that enterprise and his future medical career.

Camera Club

RECENT meetings have been quite busy with the selection of photographs for forthcoming competitions, scheduled for early April. The first of these will be against Builth Wells Photographic Club, who always present a very high standard of images for this annual event. Soon afterwards the club will be competing in the ‘Five-Way’ challenge against Cardigan, New Quay, Carmarthen and Pennant photographic clubs, which is another hotly contested event. Aberystwyth won this match last year, so we have an ambition to repeat this success this time.Members Si Moore and Mark Illsley gave the club a very interesting talk on long exposures and choice of suitable lenses and filters – a seemingly complex subject to some. Thanks to both for demystifying the subject. Looking ahead, on 7 March, Si Moore will also be giving an introduction to flash photography which promises to be another enjoyable occasion and an education to many. The club’s monthly challenge for January was on the topic of ‘Weather’, which proved to be quite demanding as the weather did little but sulk during the month. Ian Titley won the challenge as he has a habit of doing, and after some careful thought, chose the subject of ‘Movement’ for the February competition. The member who wins on 28 February will choose the theme for the March challenge.Potential new members and those who are just curious are welcome to come along to Tuesday evening meetings, 7pm, Penrhyncoch Village Hall. All are welcome and we have a policy of allowing visitors to attend three meetings to examine whether the club is for them, before making a commitment to join. All skill levels are welcome and help and advice is always freely available. Further information and contact can be made through www.aberystwythcameraclub.org.uk

CANTM

THE Ceredigion Association of National Trust members enjoyed their February meeting held at the University Club, Brynamlwg, which was well attended.Speaker Canon Hywel Jones spoke on Llanbadarn and its’ church which was the site of St. Padarn’s monastery.The next meeting is an informal gathering on Thursday, 23 March, at Llanerchaeron, meet at 10.30am in the café. A morning spent around the house and gar-den or woodland walk are recommended.24 to 28 April is the five-day holiday to Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. On 18 May a day trip to Cardigan, Fish-guard and Nevern will depart Aberystwyth at 8.30am. Cardigan is the coffee stop, Fishguard is to view The Tapestry recording The French Invasion and Nevern to visit the ancient church, standing stones and bleeding yews and also the castle and pilgims cross. Phone Gillian on 01970 627943 if you would like to join on any activities.

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