You just can’t keep some people down. Leslie Walsh alerted me to a cheery article in yesterday’s Free Press that featured not one, but two infectiously buoyant RRC alumni. The first was my favourite former RRC Governor and 2006 Red River Rebel Rider, Bev Watson. The second was current C+DE Instructor, Sherri Garrity Begalke. What do they have in common? The humble ukulele.

COVID-cramped and keen to try something new, both are now students of Manitoba musician, Kate Ferris. Ferris has been anything but hampered by the pandemic. Ukulele instructor for the Winnipeg Folk Festival’s Folk School since 2012, Kate has enjoyed a Zoom boom, with students stretching across Canada and the U.S.

For Bev, currently a flight attendant who’s been grounded most of the past year, the lull was an opportunity to fulfill a dream.

“I remember years ago when I watched The Jerk, and Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters singing Tonight You Belong To Me… I remember thinking, ‘Some day I’m going to take up the ukulele and I’m going to sing that song’.”

For Sherri, it was part of her annual plan to learn something new every winter.

“I’ve never had any opportunity till now to try playing any musical instruments. Why don’t I try this? There’s no time like a pandemic to try something new.”

As Ferris points out (and many of us are discovering), “There are no borders with Zoom.”

Makes you want to stay in and do something, don’t it?

Enjoy the full article at ee.winnipegfreepress.com?selDate=20210223&goTo=C001&artid=0.