Shaftesbury says, ‘Thank You’
Our Mayor took the opportunity to say a heartfelt, ‘Thank You.’ for the last 19 months of support given to Ukrainian guests in North Dorset and for the special visit of Kyiv City Ballet.
Virginia Edwyn-Jones surprised us all by speaking in Ukrainian.
Her speech was much appreciated by the Ukrainian speakers who demanded that she repeat it! You can listen yourself too.
The text of Virginia’s speech in English:
Dear esteemed guests
So, it is time to say goodbye and I want to thank you so much for sharing your talent, your expertise and your passion for dance with our community and particularly, our young people. It has been an honour to welcome you to Shaftesbury and our neighbouring towns of Gillingham and Sturminster Newton.
On behalf of us all, thank you so much and we hope that you have enjoyed our company, our culture and our hospitality. We have certainly enjoyed making new friends.
Ivan has been full of surprises all week, and turned the tables on the Mayor with his own Certificate of Appreciation for Virginia.
Our retiring treasurer, John Macpherson OBE, was as delighted as the Mayor to receive a certificate along with the other 6 trustees of the charity.
John has been a key part of the work of our charity. He helped get our recent Charity Commission registration and moved us to online banking and digital payments. He leaves the charity in a great position.
This was a warm and relaxed moment before the final performance later that day.
The Mayor of Shaftesbury and members of Kyiv City Ballet.
Iryna was an integral part of the planning team for the week and provided the linguistic coaching for Virginia. A great teacher with a model student, they had a lot of fun springing this wonderful surprise on us all.
All photos on this page copyright Randallphotos.
Used with the permission of Jamie Randall.
