APRIL 2018 NEWSLETTER Alpine Summit Seniors Lodge Celebrating April Happy Easter Everyone! Earth Day is an annual As winter is drawing to a close we can look forward to spring and all the event celebrated on April 22. Worldwide, sunshine it will bring! various events are held to demonstrate support The month of April is full of exciting activities. From dancing, to yoga, to for environmental protection. First quilts, to music, to Rotary soup, to historical presentations, to kids & celebrated in 1970, Earth Day events in more than icecream, to a bistro lunch, to cowboy comedy, to celebrating our beautiful 193 countries are now coordinated globally by Earth. the Earth Day Network One of the events will be bitter sweet as we will be saying goodbye to Cristin our fabulous music therapist. She will be returning to school this spring. In celebration of all she has done we are having a farewell gathering for her on April 28. April 2018 Big Ben, the famous bell housed in the Clock Tower of London’s Palace of Westminster, is a British icon. Big Ben has rung even during the worst of times, such as the Blitz, Germany’s eight-month bombardment of London during World War II. On April 10, Big Ben will ring out still another milestone, for it will turn 160 years old. The story of Big Ben begins on October 16, 1834, when fire destroyed the Palace of Westminster. While the palace was being rebuilt, it was decided a clock tower was needed. The design fell to George Airy, Astronomer Royal, and Edmund Beckett Denison, a lawyer and self- Denison allowed it to leave the described expert on clocks and bells. foundry, and it left for the Palace of Denison designed the first bell for the Westminster with great fanfare, tower, including its unique shape and pulled by 16 horses along the metal with which it was cast. The decorated streets with cheering 16-ton behemoth did not last long: it crowds. Big Ben would not ring out cracked under its first test. It was until a year later on May 31, 1859. then that Denison turned to Sir Benjamin Hall, known as “Big Whitechapel Bell Foundry to cast a Ben,” gave a long speech during new bell. a debate about what to call the George Mears was the master bell. When at last he sat down, bellfounder who undertook the re- members shouted out that the bell casting of Big Ben. It took one be dubbed “Big Ben.” Just two week to break up the old bell and months later, Big Ben cracked, the repurpose its metal. Three furnaces result of a hammer more than were used to melt the metal. It took twice the necessary weight 20 minutes to fill the mold and designed by Denison. Big Ben was another 20 days for the metal to cool simply turned, and the sound we and harden. Mears tested the bell in hear today is that distinct, less- every way possible before than-perfect tone. April 2018 Making Cinnamon Buns The eggs-traordinary decorators April 2018 Home Routes Presentation: Murfitt and Main Country, Bluegrass, Americana, and Western Swing Wednesday, April 11 at 7pm Rotary Soup Session The next session will be April 25 Please come join in the fun! .