Rockyford United Church musical evening

Manny Everett  

Times Reporter

 

The little picturesque United Church’s Musical Evening was performing to a packed house on March 18 in the Village of Rockyford.

Master of Ceremonies for the evening, Peter Lauridsen, could easily have kept the audience entertained for the entire evening alone and did a fantastic job keeping the show running smoothly from one act to another.

The evening began with two numbers performed by the Rockyford Community Choir (made up of Rockyford, Gleichen, Standard and Strathmore members), Embrace the Music (by Greg Gilpin) and an upbeat gospel number entitled Rockin’ The Boat (by composer JeanAnne Shafferman). Local singer Lydsay Goebel, accompanied by Nick Gerristen on guitar, sang Field of Gold. Goebel has been seen on many a stage from a very early age throughout the East Wheatland area.

Cole Garvin Roper and Frances Love made up a wonderful duet, singing together “The Candy Man.” They were the youngest performers of the evening.

A surprise unexpected visit was made by Justa Beaver (some were disappointed as they were expecting Justin Bieber) but after the bantering back and forth between Beaver and the MC some people had tears in their eyes from laughing so hard. Beaver was played by Standard high school student Matt Lauridsen.

Men of the Bud, who made their debut appearance last year in Rosebud,  delighted the crowd with a few numbers, Drill Ye Terriers, Will Ye Lassie Go?, and a crowd favorite Danny Boy. 

Lyndsay Goebel sang a solo half way through the program called I Love You Like Never Before. She was followed by Standard resident Ed Neufeld who entertained the crowd with his beautiful tenor voice with a medley of Irish songs. The entire crowd was encouraged to sing along to any of the songs they were familiar with and they did break out in song with him to When Irish Eyes are Smiling.

There was more than meets the eye as Peter Lauridsen (the MC for the evening), wife Fiona on percussion and brother-in-law Michael Love on acoustic guitar shared a few of the oldies-but-goodies of some soft rock and gospel mixes. Local talent who also is no stranger to the stage, Shari Filipionek sang a beautiful rendition of How Great Thou Art.

The Brass Buds from Rosebud played, followed by a few more numbers by the Choir including a congregational hymn The Day Thou Gavest Lord Is Ended. It was a perfect conclusion to a fine evening of arts and entertainment.

Following the program everyone was invited to stay for coffee and goodies in the church’s fellowship hall. Organizer of the event Gayle Garvin said “This was totally a group effort from start to finish and the evening exceeded our expectations by far to have this wonderful evening of music gather the community members together for the love of music. It was a wonderful evening all around”.