Various groups provided musical entertainment for the Annual Meyersdale Maple Festival on April 8, 2005. The Ladybirds were one of the acts and another group was a men’s barbershop quartet called Heart & Soul from Somerset, Pennsylvania.

The Ladybirds on stage at the Maple Festival

The Ladybirds carpooled to the site of the festival, with Frank Batchelor driving the majority of the group. They stopped at a restaurant prior to going to the outdoor staging area where they were to sing to meet as a group and warm up. They had coffee and/or tea at this time and returned after their performance to the same restaurant for a meal.

The Maple Festival had booths set up where food and crafts, and curiosities were for sale. As the Ladybirds approached the field where everything was set up, they found that the field was extremely wet and soggy; also, the temperature was quite chilly and many of the group were uncomfortable. Despite these unfavorable conditions, the day was bright and sunny, and the group thoroughly enjoyed listening to the barbershop tunes rendered by the men’s quartet from Somerset. The Ladybirds performance was scheduled after the quartet.

The Ladybirds and Heart & Soul

One special thing about this sing-out for the Ladybirds was that they had pre-arranged with the fourth grade class of Beall Elementary School for the students to attend the Maple Festival and actually sing with the Ladybirds Chorus. In preparation for this event, several of the Ladybirds went to the school and held a teaching session with the boys and girls. They were very receptive learners and mastered the songs quickly.

The Fourth Grade Class of Beall Elementary School perform on stage
with the Ladybirds Barbershop Harmony Singers

The students had been on a field trip that morning and came by the Maple Festival in time to perform with the Ladybirds. They expanded the ranks of the Ladybirds by about three to one, and the fourth graders and the Ladybirds Chorus sounded really great together! One of the featured numbers was This Land is Your Land. One of the fourth graders is the granddaughter of Shirley Carson, who has been a Ladybird since the inception of the organization back in the 1970’s.