Support for Ty Cadog (From Barry And District News)

Support for Ty Cadog

10:06am Thursday 7th March 2013 in Letters

I HOPE that by now everyone has completed the Ty Cadog questionnaire and has circulated the questionnaire to all their contacts.

It’s bilingual and we’re keen to get responses not only from Welsh speakers in the Vale but from those who are still learning or considering learning, and from those who live beyond the Vale but might visit Ty Cadog for a special event or find time for a cup of tea at the Welsh centre on their way home from Barry Island.

Here’s the link to the questionnaire: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/58VF7ZN We have found a property suitable for our needs in Barry and aim to open the doors in May.

To this end, we intend launching, instead of shares, a means of supporting the venture financially by becoming a supporter with a variety of levels of contribution, each offering varying benefits to you. This will be a faster, less expensive option for the campaign and will enable us to take our first step.

The appropriate documents will be published very soon so please take this opportunity to talk to your contacts about this exciting time and the unique opportunity of becoming one of the first supporters of Ty Cadog, the Welsh-language community centre for the Vale.

Another way of raising the money we need, which is far more enjoyable, is to organise an auction and this is what we are doing on April 27, in Penarth. Tickets will be available soon at the excellent price of £40 to include champagne afternoon tea, a tango lesson, disco, top quality entertainment and an auction guaranteed to raise both your spirits and the money Ty Cadog needs. Keep the date free and come to Te Mimosa! The name Te Mimosa brings me to our next piece of news.

Ty Cadog was originally a working title but many of us have grown fond of it and it is the name of the private company limited by guarantee established to further the aims of our project. But our first centre – if we are lucky enough to be beginning a chain of locations across the Vale(!) – will be called Ty Mimosa.

The first Welsh colonists sailed to Patagonia on the ship Mimosa, taking the language with them. In the same way, we hope to bring the Welsh language to those in the Vale who are not yet able or sufficiently confident to speak it, to give our young people an opportunity to use the language of our fathers, and to contribute to the revitalising of Barry by bringing back some of the liveliness of her old sea-port glory.

In the meantime, Ty Cadog events continue apace: a Welsh quiz in the Windsor Arms, Penarth on March 8, (7.30pm, £3, in the company of quizmaster Aled Wyn), a Welsh community singing night in the same pub on April 12, (no charge but there will be a collection for the campaign)……and there’s lots of work to be done between now and the opening of Ty Mimosa’s doors, so any offer or promise of assistance will be welcomed.

Kay Holder Chair Steering Committee Ty Cadog