FOR decades, three key members of the Leeton Eisteddfod Society have been crucial in the event's success.
With that in mind and, to thank each of them for their at times back-breaking work and long hours, Judith Nolan, Maria Damiani and Lena DiSalvatore have officially been made life members of the organisation.
The Leeton Eisteddfod has a long and decorated history, with each of these three ladies putting their heart and souls into ensuring its success year-after-year.
Over the many years between the three of them, they have handled basically every job or task possible when it comes to organising the eisteddfod, making sure each discipline runs smoothly and ensuring costumes, programs, sponsorship and more all come to fruition.
While that is just the tip of the iceberg, what is for sure is each of the three women have dedicated a large part of their life to the society, making this accolade extra special and fitting for each of them.
They were honoured with the life membership during a special afternoon tea recently.
POOR entries over recent years is one of the many factors behind a decision from the Leeton Eisteddfod Society to remove the speech and drama discipline from its program in 2023.
Speech and drama categories will not be going ahead this year as part of the event, with committee members agonising for some time on whether or not to pull it from the schedule.
"We've decided to put the speech and drama discipline into a 12-month hiatus," society vice president Chez Whymark said.
"Entries have been done. It's been happening for five or six years now, they've just kept decreasing.
"We've talked about doing this previously, but kept pressing on. However, we discussed it at the end of last year's eisteddfod.
"Then we had a workshop where we discussed it for hours, but couldn't reach a decision.
"We held it over to our next meeting and in the end it was unanimous to put it into hiatus for this year." The literary section will still continue.