OF INTEREST…
Military Wives Choir more than you think
Kelly Leonard has been part of it right from the very start with Gareth Malone and was then instrumental in setting up the charity that is now known to us all as the Military Wives Choirs Foundation. When this article first came in to me, I found myself smiling as I read it. It made me really appreciate just how much more than a Choir they have become.
O
ne of the saddest things about moving my family away from our previous posting was that I had to
leave the Chivenor Military Wives Choir. It had been a fantastic source of support and friendship for me during our time there, especially when my husband was deployed to Afghanistan. I was also incredibly lucky to be involved in the programme The Choir: Military Wives with Gareth Malone in 2011 which saw the choir gain the coveted Christmas No. 1 single with Wherever You Are.
With confidence in the belief of the benefits of singing in a choir for military wives, I volunteered countless hours each week with a small group of ladies to set up the Military Wives Choirs Foundation as a legacy of the success we saw in 2011. However leaving it all behind when we moved our family abroad to Cyprus was a wrench like I had never felt before.
When we moved, I was keen to join the nearest choir as soon as possible. There
wasn't a choir available locally, and after hearing how many ladies on the camp felt isolated as they were away from their support network and family back home, I felt I should start a choir at RAF Akrotiri. To be singing again was wonderful but to receive the friendship and support of the other wives was just something that I never imagined would overwhelm me in the way that it did. When one of us needs support the others just step up and this can happen locally and internationally. An example of this was one of the Akrotiri wives came back to the UK for medical treatment and I requested if any of our Choir family could help support her as we were not there, she was inundated with people bringing her and her family food, visiting her at hospital, entertaining the kids to give her a rest.
This mix of military women meeting is exactly what the network of around 80 Military Wives Choirs are all about and the spirit can be summed up by two comments made by choir members: “It has changed my life and coming to choir makes me the person I never had the confidence to be
before,” said one wife and another said, “I have lived here for a year and barely met anyone, now I am making life-long friends through choir”. As the title track of one of the Military Wives Choir songs says, we are truly “Stronger Together”!
Part of the charitable organisation the Military Wives Choirs Foundation, Military Wives Choirs make a positive impact through improving well-being, building friendships and developing skills, wherever our Forces and their families are based. If you are interested in starting a Military Wives Choir in your area, or even joining one of the existing choirs, please email
enquiries@militarywiveschoirs.org.
50 Envoy Spring 2015
www.raf-ff.org.uk
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