NEWSLETTER September 2011

BOLLYWOOD NIGHT

On Friday 22nd July, members of the Association joined in with a group of Bollywood dancers when they were put through their paces at the Indigo Restaurant, Manchester Road, Bury.  In this new venture - the brainchild of our Social Secretary, Bernie Schofield - Seventy four members and guests enjoyed a sumptuous Indian meal and gazed spellbound at the magical dancing of Monica Bellani, dancer and choreographer, who normally teaches the intricate steps and hand movements to actors in Bollywood movies.  Monica, as well as dancing entrancingly, explained the rhythmic dances and translated the mystical language of hand movements. In no time, members of our association got to their feet and performed under Monica’s expert tuition, achieving an amazing level of skill and expertise.

On the night we achieved a full house but with less than a week to go, we

GRANT APPLICATION

This year we again decided that we would apply for, a European Community Grant to help meet the expenses of the coming visit to Bury of a group from Tulle in April, 2012 and considerable work has been done on this. The theme of the visit will be ‘Active Ageing’. This was not meant to be a comment on your Committee; it was chosen because 2012 had been declared the ‘European year of Active Ageing’ and it was thought that this might improve our chances of success. We were pleased with the number of activities that we could find which would fit into the theme. In addition, as it seems to us that applications involving age groups of 17 to 25 appear to figure more often in the lists of successful applicants, our slightly higher average would act in our favour. However, in July we learned that Bury Council will be hosting the International Youth Sports Festival in 2012 and will apply to the same European fund. The rules are clear: one grant per town per year. If successful, our grant would have attracted about £2000, the Council’s, perhaps £30,000. Subsequently, we withdrew our application but we like the theme and we will continue to plan accordingly. For similar financial reasons, Angouleme will take part in the sporting event but not in a twinning exchange in 2012.

had sold only twentyt ickets and we cameclose to canceling the evening. This would have been a shame because in the event, the remainder of the tickets were sold at the last minute and everybody thoroughly enjoyed themselves, we gained three new members, and nearly

£500 were  added to the Association funds. To ensure their involvement and to prevent the organisers getting  quite so stressed, we would invite members to obtain their tickets for future events well in advance, and life would be much easier.

Go to page 2