July - the first of the two months that were created by a Roman Emperor - it's here, the sun is shining and everything is beautiful (in it's own way…); if you're interested, see the August 2005 News-Letter for the full story about the extra Roman months! Last month, in the face of all of this "beauty", I really had a lot of fun with my calling; as I was able to "give" something back to life (in general) and to Square Dancing (in particular).

On the first weekend in June I "gave" my services to the Danish National Convention, in order to help raise money for the Child Cancer Foundation, an organisation responsible for funding the care and treatment of infants who are suffering from cancer. I joined with several callers all of whom donated their fee towards raising money for this terrific organisation. For more details about this event and those who took part take a look at the following link: http://www.dc2009.dk/en_index.html

During the following week I had the privilege of appearing as one of the coaches at the GSI caller school in the U.K. where I had the chance to be part of a team of the most experienced caller coaches in the world and help a group of callers, of varying experience and ability, to improve their understanding and "sharpen" their skills as callers. Caller coaching is extremely hard work - by comparison to calling at a dance or festival - but it does offer a great deal in the form of the satisfaction that can be derived from helping callers to learn and grow; if you watch a group of "candidate callers" in a caller-school situation, you can see the most fantastic combination of Square Dance minds acting as a co-operative body, everybody gains and everybody wins!

If you are not already aware, GSI (Grand Square Incorporated) is an organisation, based in the U.S.A., which is dedicated to preserving Square Dancing. To achieve this GSI has embarked upon several endeavours one of which is to arrange events that feature top named callers and offer tuition to new and existing callers, FREE-OF-CHARGE. At these events the school starts on Sunday and runs through to Thursday. The cost of the school is covered in part by a dance festival, which takes place on the following Friday, Saturday and Sunday - but is heavily subsidised by the GSI organisation, from their own funds. For more information about GSI, in general, please click on this link. http://www.grandsquare.org/

It is fantastic to be involved with anything that is set up to help people and to do so by virtue of the role that I play in Square Dancing gives me a warm feeling deep inside. To be able to make use of my talents for a good cause is one of the things that makes life worth living - it's what life is all about…

Here is the "other news" for July:

BEST SELLER LISTING (positions on the May 2009 listing)
No.8 - Crossfire - SNW 1008

NEW RELEASES (July 2009):
Chapel Of Love - SIR 371 - Vocal by Tony Oxendine
Long And Winding Road - SIR 370 - Vocal by Paul Bristow

NEW CD RELEASES - also available on MP3 & Vinyl (in most cases) / (June 2009):
None! - no spare room on the Hanhurst's review Tape/CD/Internet service!!!

INDIVIDUAL RECORD HISTORIES including ALL THE ADDITIONAL LYRICS:
To find these, just click on the book symbol next to the title on the Catalogue, Future Releases or Latest Releases pages, this month's record history features our newest singing call release: Crossfire.

If you want to hear how these top-selling recordings sound, just click on the musical note symbol.

So, after having spent a large part of June "supporting" worthy causes, I guess that I can now take a few moments to "polish my halo"…! Catch up with you all again, on next month's News-Letter!

Go Squareful! - Paul Bristow (Owner and Producer Sting and Snow Records)