By Portia Williams
The Holy Redeemer Bell Choir will host Bella Luna II, ‘An Evening in Italy in Memory of Kim Dawson’ on Saturday, June 27, 2015. Seating will begin at 6 p.m. at the Holy Redeemer Activity Center, 1325 Gallia St., Portsmouth. It is the return of an authentic, elegant, Italian feast.
Marcia Melcher, Holy Redeemer Bell Choir member, and one of the coordinators of Bella Luna II, said it is not a mere dinner, but it is a feast of delicious Italian cuisine.
“The purpose of this feast, this event is to establish a memorial yet to be determined for all past, present and future members of the Holy Redeemer Bell Choir,” Melcher said. “This is Bella Luna II, we’ve already had one three years ago. The whole idea to do this again came when we lost our member, Kim Dawson to an untimely death, and we just had to find a way to express ourselves and this is it.”
She said the Holy Redeemer Bell Choir endeavors to help to accentuate, or enhance people’s lives, and have traveled various places to do so.
“We try to enhance people’s prayer life with our music. We play at the Masses, we’ve played at several Catholic Churches, one in London, Ohio, and we played at St. Monica’s, Our Lady of Sorrows, St. Mary’s, Holy Redeemer,” she said.
The majority of the Bell Choir’s music is religious, but have been known to play secular as well.
“Of course, we are playing religious music, but when one of our Priests left, we had a dinner celebration for him, and we played secular music for that and just had a ball playing it,” she said.”We played Phantom of the Opera, and it was wonderful, but most of our music is for the church, and in doing so we hope that it is inspiring people, and bringing them closer to God.”
Melcher said Bella Luna is not a mere dinner, but it is a feast, a delicious Italian cuisine.
“We are having lasagna, vegetables, meatballs, marinara sauce. We are having a wonderful fresh, spring mixed salad and, hors d’oeuvres, and gelatos for dessert with these homemade Italian cookies,” she said. “All of the food is homemade, and we have Italian cooks, that just work their fingers to the bone trying to get the food ready.”
Beverages participants will be able to choose wine, iced tea, coffee, water. The evening will also include live entertainment by renowned, local musicians.
The cost for Bella Luna II tickets is $20 per person and may be purchased from any of the following Bell Choir members: Larry and Jane Brown, Gary and Pam Marion, Howard and Doris Robinson, Bobby Virginia, Debbie Moore, Truman Hash, Leanne and Jeremy Fuhrmann, Anne Adams, Jan Gerken, Ralph and Marcia Melcher, Gus and Mary Saltsman, Paul and Pam Riepenhoff, Lynne and Faith Harding, Laura Creech.
Tickets may also be purchased from the Holy Redeemer/St. Mary Church on the Sixth St. side from the secretary, Sandy DePuy. Ticket sells will be final, and will not be available at the door.
“Ticket sells are Supposed to end Sunday, June 22nd, but we can extend it to Monday if we have to,” she said.
Bella Luna was a great success three years ago,” she said. “This is for the community, it is not for our Parrish, or our church it is for the community,
Reach Portia Williams at 740-353-3101, ext. 1929, or on Twitter @PortiaWillPDT.
