Music is a passion of St. Andrew’s United Church—one that I share. For many years, St. Andy’s Rhythm and Roots gave us an opportunity to engage in that passion, create a community around the ethic of local art/music, welcome a diverse group of folks who normally would not be exposed to us, and to generate a new stream of income. It has been a source of joy and challenge for me as the key organizer and energy behind the program. The pandemic has suspended the program for the last two years, even as we continually looked for opportunities to offer live music events.  These last two years have necessitated the cancelation of every concert we had planned to offer causing us to loose all the momentum and goodwill we had built over the years. My pending retirement also complicates any efforts to restart the concert series. Council, The Ad Hoc Reopening Committee and I have come to the decision to suspend all St. Andy’s activities until such time as a path forward can be formulated with new leadership. I hope that the concert series will find new life some day, but we also have to accept the possibility that the time for this program has passed.

I want to thank everyone who served pie and coffee, took tickets, sold CD’s, bought tickets and generally supported this program. We learned a lot, we made many new friends and were seen in a different light by many folks in Cochrane who otherwise would never engage with us. If you have any outstanding tickets, please contact Kristi for a full refund or information as to how you can donate that refund to SAUC. I am happy to answer any questions you may have.

Blessings,
Ray