WOW, what a great way to start the New Year off with our brand new 2017 Leadership Academy. We had almost 100 participants, lots of new faculty, and one special guest from the west: Rob Mance. There was a ton of singing, lots of tags, and great times. If you didn’t go this year, make a note for the second weekend in January 2018 to come join us. I promise there will be lots of opportunity to sing.

I hope that one of your New Years Resolutions was to get out and sing with your chapter and find a way to have a positive input on the risers. How many of you ever wanted to sing in a quartet? Make it happen this year… just like chorus contest, we have the ability to let your quartet enter for evaluation only, not a bad way to see how you stack up against the big boys or how they stack up to you.

Lastly, many know of my Harmony is Healing program that was started in January of 2011 (Juanita Arnold partnered with me to get some rubber bracelets). The idea behind the bracelets was that every time you touched it, you would look at and think of someone you might know who has or is fighting their battle with cancer. In 2013 at the Toronto International Convention we used the same mantra of “Harmony is Healing” and sold bands with all the proceeds going to The Hospital for Sick Children. Well, I’m bringing back my mantra, and bracelets, for 2017 and 2018. But this time, it’s for the people in our community, senior homes, shelters and even at the churches we sing for. Work with your chapter leaders to sing out and at the same time recognize that "Harmony is Healing" is such a great way to share our hobby.

Please share our passion for singing this year and have as much fun as you can.

With a Song in my heart,

Andrew Shackleton

President of the Ontario District