When I came to Good Shepherd in 1985, I was pleased to see that after I was here for about two months that these bells were brought to the music office from St. Joseph rectory. I had no idea they were even here when I came. One of the first things I did in the fall of 1985 was to start a handbell choir. I had taken a two week workshop on handbells at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1982, and was anxious to use what I had learned. I put an article in the parish bulletin and received about five responses. After talking to these students we rounded up another three to make the eight ringers we needed. The original group was made up of the following people:
Jason Belavic
Tracey Teck
Mollie Miller
Tom McDonnell
Cindy Wos
Sundi Silvasy
Dina Hartford
Deana Lucarelli
We practiced diligently and went to an all day workshop in Washington, PA, and played for Mass maybe six or seven times. But after the first year was over, these students got jobs and were getting into high school commitments and the group sort of just faded away by late spring of 1986.
Sister Eileen Csuk, O.P. came from St. William to Good Shepherd in 1987. She was to celebrate her silver jubilee on the feast of the Assumption during the summer of 1988. She told me she wanted the handbells to play for her jubilee. By this time I had forgotten about the handbells but Sister Eileen was very persistent. So I arranged a simple two chord procession to be used with "Hail, Holy Queen" as the entrance hymn. It required four students. Sister and I recruited Michael and Andrea Punturi, Bill Roland and John Rumcik. She was ecstatic about the jubilee Mass and approached me (twisted my arm) to start a handbell group in the school (8th grades) that would rehearse one period a week and play a few times a year. I agreed and the group was begun. As the year wore on, I saw that only one year of exposure and rehearsal, and then playing a few times was not enough to give the ringers an adequate experience and any real facility at bell ringing. So, we started a 7th grade group that would give the students two years of experience. Due to the small size of the seventh and eighth grades in the 1992-1993 school year, we began combining these grades and began the younger bell choirs in subsequent years. Now the program has expanded to include sixth, seventh and eighth grades every year.
After three years, someone asked if we would play at a Christmas party for a construction company in Wexford. We prepared and played outside of the parish at Christmas for the first time in 1992. The ringers were nervous. I was worried. We did well! We got paid! It was wonderful! The touring Good Shepherd Handbells were born.
This page was last updated on July 3, 2002
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