Battlefords Blend
Sandra Halseth, front and centre, performing with her Sweet Adelines Chorus for the 2022 competition. Although the competition could not be held in person this year, each group recorded their performance live to send into the judges.
Battlefords Blend has not been actively seeking new members for the last two years. This year we changed that!
Our Ways and Means chair, Val Laing, has managed to find ways for us to raise money while we were unable to go out and entertain in public. We’ve partnered with our local Co-op and Northern Nurseries to sell gift cards which earn us a percentage of what we sell. This has been a great boost for our bank account. With that money, we decided it was time to start actively pursuing new members and our Membership chair, Andrea Stewart, with help from other Blend members, put together a plan with a budget!!
The plan was to start advertising in local weekly newspapers. Along with each ad went a story about one of our current members. The first story was about our long time tenor, Karen Cubbon, who raised her sons “on the risers”. The second story was about our recipient of the Carol Poole Spirit of Region 26 Award winner, Sandra Halseth, who is celebrating 49 years with Sweet Adelines!
In addition to the advertising and the stories, some of our members went out to a few events to hand out the newly written and printed pamphlets. It may not seem like much, but with a chorus of only 18 members, it was a total success to have eight people call, talk to our members or otherwise express interest in joining our group. Of those, four have come to rehearsals and three have been to more than one. That’s all since the first of May! If we get three or four new members, we will count it as a success.
That isn’t the end of the plan though. We will continue to go to various events, spread our pamphlets to wherever we can and all of our members are committed to talking to others about our Blend of music. Once these new potential members have a taste for our music, we will gradually introduce them to all the possibilities of being a member of Sweet Adelines International.
We typically take July and August off, so our hope is that these potential new members will commit in September and grow our group. We will also advertise again in August in the hope of attracting more new members in the fall.
We also upped our Facebook presence with short bios of some of our members and what attracted them to barbershop singing. We have found another way to attract people is our YouTube channel that now includes our entry in the 2022 Region 26 competition.
Getting back out there has been a challenge as we continue to follow protocols to keep our members safe. Still, it’s great to be meeting every week, masks on, and to learn new music and meet new people.
See below for the stories we’ve had published along with the ads we’ve used and our pamphlet. It isn’t perfect, still with dedicated members, we are having some success in growing our membership and spreading the word that we are still around and ready to Blend our harmonies.
Marketing Ad and Member Stories
Member profile: Karen Cubbon
Blending the Battlefords
It wasn’t always easy for this registered nurse, farmwife and mother of three very active boys, yet Karen Cubbon has been a part of Battlefords Blend since 1989. Battlefords Blend Harmony Chorus became a chartered member of Sweet Adelines International in 1981. For those not familiar with Sweet Adelines, it is an international organization of women who sing a cappella (without accompaniment) in the barbershop style.
Karen is one of two tenors in the 18 member chorus. That means she sings the high part while leads usually sing the melody, basses sing the low parts and baritones fill in the spaces. “I just love singing the harmony,” said Karen. “I also love all my sisters that I have met through Sweet Adelines.”
“My boys grew up with me singing. The other members were very supportive and my boys still talk about some of the members being so nice to them when they were at rehearsal,” she said.
“My husband was supportive as well, knowing that I sang on Tuesday nights, but during seeding and harvest he was not available. I used to pick the kids up from the babysitter, drive 14 miles home, feed them supper, drive one or five miles to pick up the babysitter – depending on who I could get – drive back home and then drive 14 miles back to North Battleford to rehearsal and do it all over again at the end of rehearsal.”
When the boys got older and started playing hockey Karen would drop them off at hockey, tie skates, go to rehearsal and then leave rehearsal to pick them up and go back to rehearsal. There were times when Karen would have to leave early to get the boys to bed. Karen admits it could be a bit of a whirlwind, yet it was worth it all.
“The chorus was very understanding and I think they enjoyed the kids. When they were little babies I just brought them along – that was the easiest time – I just breastfed on the risers and sang at the same time.” Karen recalled a time when the chorus was at a workshop in Saskatoon. “One of my babies was fussing and our chorus was due to sing. Somebody from another chorus just stepped in to bounce the baby and we carried on. And he quit crying when we were singing and started up again when we stopped.”
Regional workshops are held regularly and at least once every three years each group is required to compete in a regional contest. Karen has been to contests in Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton and Surrey. Contest weekend usually runs from Thursday to Sunday. It includes award presentations, introduction of the regional board, quartet contest, chorus contest and a show of champions featuring the top quartets and choruses.
Contest weekend also offers at least one educational component. One of the highlights is a mass sing. “All of the choruses get together to sing our regional song. It is a lot of fun,” said Karen.
Besides these regional competitions, Battlefords Blend often performs in communities around the Battlefords. “We did a show at Livelong as a fundraiser for one of our members that was dealing with medical issues,” said Karen. “This was very well received.” Some of the other shows Karen has been a part of were performances at the Dekker Centre, a Red Hat Ladies provincial meeting, “Those Were the Days”, Festival of Trees in North Battleford and Maidstone, a performance for the Manitou Pioneers Museum in Neilburg, and Light up the Village at the Western Development Museum. The chorus also sings at nursing homes and long term care facilities and has been hired for a number of private functions like birthday and anniversary parties. Singing at these private functions and putting on shows at the Dekker Centre are part of their fundraising efforts. The group has also done some BBQs at the Co-op in North Battleford and have sold gift cards for the Co-op and for Northern Nurseries. Of course, bake sales and raffles are other methods they use to raise funds. The funds they raise help to pay for music, costumes and costs associated with going to competitions.
There are many memorable things for Karen as a part of Battlefords Blend.
“I’m proud of singing at the opening of the Dekker Centre – it is a beautiful facility and we’re lucky to have it,” she said.
At contest the chorus came in second one year in the small chorus category and one year they won “Most Improved”. They were also the “audience choice” winner for the open division in Saskatoon which put them in the Show of Champions.
Karen went to San Antonio with three other members of the chorus for the International Education Symposium. She attended the first international convention held outside of the U.S.A. which was held in Calgary. She also attended an international convention in Seattle.
“It is a group of women of various ages and backgrounds but with one common theme – music. You get to meet a lot of very interesting people.” Karen has met many people over the years and looks forward to new members joining now that Covid restrictions have been lifted.
Member Profile: Sandra Halseth
Spirit Award Winner
Sandra Halseth of Livelong, Saskatchewan, has received the Sweet Adelines International Region 26 Carol Poole Spirit of 26 Award for 2022. Sandra has been a member of Battleford Blend Chorus since 2007 after she and her husband moved from Saskatoon to Turtle Lake. Prior to that time, she was a devoted member of Magic City, the Saskatoon chorus of Sweet Adelines International which she joined in 1973.
With 49 years on the risers, Sandra continues to enjoy the music, the travel, and especially the camaraderie in the chorus. That’s why she continues to drive an hour and a half each way to attend rehearsals in the Battlefords on Tuesday nights.
When Battlefords Blend first got their charter, Sandra was singing with Magic City Chorus in Saskatoon. “Our chorus travelled to North Battleford on a bitterly cold winter night in 1982 to ‘sing them in’, officially welcoming our new ‘sisters in song’.” That’s where she formed a friendship with two of the Blend’s charter members which grew when they met at various regional events, for training or competition.
Travelling is not unusual for Sandra as she has made several trips to various locations for Region 26 competitions. She’s been with her chorus to Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Burnaby, and Victoria and even attended the International Competitions in Indianapolis and Calgary.
When it comes to the competition weekends “My favourite part has always been the Mass Sing – a public performance of 500 to 800 singers!” In addition to that and actually singing with her chorus, Sandra attends the classes that are presented on a certain aspect of performances and coaching sessions by area directors. Whenever possible, she invites family members living in the host city to attend the Saturday evening show of champions.
In addition to the competitions, choruses also put on shows of their own and Sandra has been a part of those shows in many capacities, beyond singing as a lead. She has held various positions as a member of the board of directors, and been involved in show planning and fund raising.
With all of her experience, she is the one in the chorus who can answer most questions regarding Sweet Adelines protocol and routines. She is also one who typically welcomes new or potential members whole-heartedly, knowing how much they can learn, do and enjoy with this group of women.
Although the travel and shows are a lot of hard work and fun, “I find it very rewarding to entertain for seniors in nursing homes.” Like many community-minded people, Sandra loves to give back to the community. And sometimes her community gives back to her.
“My sisters in the chorus brought me to tears with a show they brought to Livelong to support me during a three year health struggle I had,” Sandra claims. “It was so appreciated.” Even through her health struggles, she attended rehearsals when she could and continued to keep up with learning her music.
It sometimes takes a family to be a Sweet Adelines singer. “My older daughter was less than a year old when I joined Sweet Adelines,” said Sandra. “My husband has always been supportive, to the point of trying to curl her uncurl-able hair the night before school pictures!”
Sandra’s husband, Alden, and her children attended every show and Alden helped with whatever he could. Her two daughters were even angels in one Christmas show and sang in “The Hills Are Alive” show with a group of Sweet Adelines kids.
With her experience and dedication to Battlefords Blend Chorus, Sandra is a worthy recipient of the Sweet Adelines International, Region 26 Spirit Award.