THE latest community news from Aberystwyth

Diwali Festival

DIWALI, one of the most popular, visible and widely-celebrated festivals by Hindus across the world, is being celebrated in Borth at the weekend.

It is also celebrated by followers of different faiths – Sikhs, Jains and Newar Buddhists.

Since 2009, Diwali is celebrated at 10 Downing Street, every year.

This year, in Aberystwyth, besides the Hindu (and other faith) households, Diwali will also be celebrated as a community cultural show at Borth community hall on 21 October.

The mayor of Aberystwyth, Cllr Steve Davies will be the chief guest gracing the occasion. The event is being organised by Aberystwyth Hindu Cultural Society (AHCS).

So, on the occasion of Diwali or Deepavali, organisers which readers happiness, prosperity and success in your future endeavours.

Inner Wheel

THE October meeting of the Inner Wheel Club of Aberystwyth was held on 9 October, at the Waun Fawr Hall, Celia Gardner presiding, in the absence of president Pat Sani.

Speaker for the evening was Beti Wyn Davies who gave an illustrated talk on her ‘Holiday to Costa Rica’.

Costa Rica, founded by Christopher Columbus, means ‘rich coast’ and offers visitors a great variety of wild life and rich diversity of plants which Beti illustrated through her slides and commentary. She showed banana and coffee plantations, rain and cloud forests,volcano craters and cities such as San Hose and Granada.

Pride of place in her collection of photos was taken by the vibrant flowers which indeed showed her view that ‘the earth laughs in flowers’.

They saw the rich bird life, including hummingbirds and macaws and shared her memories of a beautiful country with a final sunset over a Costa Rican beach.

Appreciation of her talk was given by Margaret Rees in her vote of thanks.

Cymdeithas yr Aelwyd

NOS Wener, 13 Hydref, croesawyd yr aelodau yn ôl ar ddechrau tymor newydd gan y llywydd Hefin Jones.

Y gwr gwadd oedd Lyn Ebenezer, yr awdur, newyddiadurwr, bardd a darlledwr o Bontrhydfendigaid.

Bu pobl a llyfrau yn bwysig iddo ar hyd ei oes a soniodd am rai o’r 97 llyfr y bu’n gweithio arnynt hyd yn hyn, a’r rhai fydd yn ymddangos yn fuan.

Aeth Lyn ymlaen i siarad am rai o’r bobl y daeth ar eu traws, yn fonedd a gwreng, ac fel y gellid disgwyl roedd ganddo lu o storiau am bobl fel Richard Burton, Dewi Pws ac Eirwyn Pontsian yn ogystal â chymeriadau lliwgar y Bont.

Daeth y noson ddifyr hon i ben gyda Lyn yn darllen ei bryddest ddaeth yn ail yng nghystadleuaeth y goron yn yr Eisteddfod Genedlaethol eleni.

Choral Society

THE Tuesday evening rehearsals for the forthcoming Christmas Concert in the Old Hall, Old College, have been going well and conductor David Russell Hulme has been delighted to welcome new singers in all four voices.

He has been particularly pleased to see some new tenors in the choir and for the first time in the choir’s history, there are three ladies singing Tenor.

Last Tuesday evening David informed the choir that the second work to be performed in the Great Hall of the Arts Centre on Saturday, 16 December, will be Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols.

This was composed in 1912 for baritone chorus and orchestra, and consists of a single movement of roughly twelve minutes duration, consisting of the English folk carols The truth sent from above, Come all you worthy gentlemen, and On Christmas night all Christians sing.

These are interposed with brief orchestral quotations from other carols, such as The First Nowell.

The work remains popular with choral societies, and one Soprano remarked that it was one of the pieces sung for her first concert with the Society in 2004.

There is still time for more new choristers in all four voices to join the choir which operates a no auditions policy.

Information is available from the chairman, June Wilson on [email protected] or 07852 188184.

Cats Protection

CATS Protection’s Aberystwyth & District Branch is appealing for cat lovers who fancy a new challenge to volunteer for the charity.

People from all walks of life are encouraged to contact the Aberystwyth & District Branch which provides an essential cat rehoming service in the local area.

The branch is looking for a volunteer Branch Coordinator to support and manage all the volunteers and allow it to help even more cats, as well as volunteer Fosterers who look after felines on a short-term basis, either in cat pens in their garden or a spare room in their house.

Cats Protection is the UK’s leading feline welfare charity.

The Aberystwyth & District Branch is part of the charity’s nationwide network of over 250 volunteer-run branches and 34 centres that together help around 190,000 cats and kittens each year.

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer for Cats Protection’s Aberystwyth & District Branch, call Emma O’Neill on 01249 750051 or 07969 316564 or email [email protected]

Rotary Club

MEMBERS welcomed Cllr Paul Hinge to its meeting last week to hear about his work as Armed Forces Champion of Ceredigion.

This role is focused on supporting members of the armed services and their families in a successful transition to civilian life, a task which is especially important in the case of servicemen and women who have had comparatively short periods of service.

The concept of an ‘armed forces covenant’ has been part of the UK political discourse since the early 2000s but has never been placed on a formal legislative footing.

Ceredigion has established a Community Covenant Board, of which Paul is the current chair.

The Board brings together representatives from armed forces organisations, local health boards, housing and family organisations with a view to co-ordinating and improving support for those leaving the armed forces.

Paul mentioned in particular one such organisation, ‘Change Step’, which offers peer mentoring to individuals adapting to civilian life.

As Ceredigion has no major military bases in area, the county can sometimes find it difficult to access support from the armed services themselves.

Despite this the board has achieved some successes, for example in working with Aberystwyth University’s Family Legal Network, offering support across Wales and in developing small recreational projects for ex-servicemen and women.

On behalf of the club, past president Derrick Whiting, himself an army veteran from the early 1950s, expressed his thanks to Paul for his presentation and offered his support as a patron of several service organisations.

One World Week

THE Morlan Centre has joined forces with Mind Aberystwyth for the second time to organise a multicultural fair to mark One World Week, running from 22 October to 29 October.

Carol Jenkins, Morlan’s manager, said: “As a faith and culture centre, Morlan organises various events throughout the year.

“Since the centre opened over 12 years ago, we have organised several events to mark One World Week but are particularly pleased this year to be working with the local Mind group once again to organise this event as a celebration of the diversity within our community.”

The fair will take place between 11.30am and 2.30pm on Saturday afternoon, 21 October.

As well as introducing people to some aspects of the Welsh culture, there will be music, dancing and songs from Brittany, China, India and Korea, and a chance to taste Polish food, have a henna tattoo, try on saris and have a go at origami and Chinese writing.

Dylan Lewis, vice chair of Mind Aberystwyth’s trustees, said: “Mind Aberystwyth provides information, support and various services for people affected by mental distress and their family.

“Diversity and promoting inclusion is important to our work. We recognise that discrimination and prejudice exist in our society, but we hope that holding such events will contribute in some way to eliminating this.”

Proceeds from the event will go to Mind Aberystwyth.

Awards Ceremony

FOLLOWING the success of Mudiad Meithrin’s Awards Ceremony last year, the Mudiad will hold this ceremony again this year to celebrate and recognise the hard work of staff and volunteers in cylchoedd Ti a Fi, Cylchoedd Meithrin and day nurseries all over Wales.

This awards ceremony will be held at 5.30pm at MedRus Conference Centre in Aberystwyth on Friday, 20 October, with the TV presenter Arfon Haines Davies MCing the ceremony.

If you’re a member of a club, society or group, send your news to [email protected]