NWAF Grants - 2009

Welsh Harp and Heritage Society of North America, Inc.

The annual Welsh Heritage Week (of two weeks duration!) course provided instruction and immersion in Welsh culture, including the language, music, religion, literature and dance. In 2009 the course was held at Cardiff University in Wales. Course participants traveled west from Cardiff to St. David’s and north to Llandudno, from where they attended the National Eisteddfod in Bala. Website»

Cymdeithas Madog

A grant from the NWAF provided scholarship assistance for Cwrs Goleuni'r Gogledd (The Northern Lights Course) in late July. The annual Cwrs Cymraeg language course was held on the Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta in Camrose, Alberta. Website»

Avondale Grave Restoration

On September 6, 1869, 110 men and boys left their homes that morning to go to work at the Avondale Mine near Plymouth, PA. A fire started in the shaft resulting in a disaster in which many lives were lost; 61 of these were of Welsh descent living in the Hyde Park section of Scranton where they were buried in the Washburn Street Cemetery. The 140th anniversary of the disaster will be marked in September of 2009. An active group from the Lackawanna Historical Society has raised funds to repair the graves and erect a marker close to the graves. This together with a plaque previously erected by the NWAF at the entrance to the cemetery will serve to memorialize the Welsh lives lost in this tragedy. Website»

Great Plains Welsh Heritage Project

The Welsh Heritage Centre is in downtown Wymore, Nebraska, a town that was the site of an early Welsh settlement and a Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church and cemetery. The Centre, established through the vision and tireless efforts of Dr. Berwyn Jones, Martha Davies and others, draws visitors from across the country. A grant was made to ensure the completion of a Memorial Garden for the Welsh Pioneers and further enhance other features of the Centre. Website»

NWAF Book Search Grant

In the spring of 2009, Dr. Sarah Campbell was awarded a Fulbright-Cardiff University Scholars to pursue the study of medieval and early-modern Welsh literature at School of Welsh, Cardiff University. Her primary areas of study include medieval drama and performance, particularly dramatic texts written in Latin, Middle English, and Early Modern Welsh.  She received her doctorate from the Catholic University of America, under the direction of Stephen K. Wright.  She won the Medieval Academy's John Leyerle/CARA prize for dissertation research at the University of Toronto, and the Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society commended her for a presentation illuminating issues faced by translators of Celtic texts. "As one of few scholars working on early Welsh drama, Sarah spoke as a voice of authority on the subject."

Dr. Campbell has been a lecturer at Boston University for more than 12 years.  She is also a frequent participant in Cwrs Cymraeg, an annual week-long, intensive Welsh language course sponsored by Cymdeithas Madog (a non-profit organization dedicated to helping North Americans learn, use and enjoy the Welsh language). She completed her third term on the board of directors of Cymdeithas Madog in July, 2009.  Some of Campbell’s written work has been published in the North American Welsh newspaper, Ninnau. Her Fulbright project will contribute to the publication of a Welsh and English dual language edition of a significant medieval Welsh play.