We were able to hold our July meeting face to face – the first time since February 2020. It was lovely! We met at Colburn Village Hall on a beautiful sunny evening for a meal and get-together, with a low key business session.
Angie Dale and Colburn Community Action
We began with a short talk from Angie Dale, mastermind and leader of Colburn’s response to the Covid crisis. This comprised a PPE sewing bee, which produced 250 PPE garments a week for local health services. She also established a food-share bank (to which we contributed), which enabled many local families in hardship to collect essential supplies to keep them going during lockdown. She added a clothing and household goods exchange to the list, all based in the Village Hall. As if this was not enough, the community group she leads provided lunches for local schoolchildren on the free school meals scheme during the half term holidays, and she is now investigating options for the summer break. A real Covid hero!
Long Service wards
Angie’s ladies then served us a delicious two-course meal for £10 per head, with tea, whilst we caught up with each other on how we were getting on. So much nicer than Zoom, however useful. Angie thanked us for our donation of food and household supplies brought to the meeting. President Sharon was able to present 3 long service certificates to Sandy Baxter (25 years), Anne Morton (25 years) and Anne Potts (30 years), thanking them for their contribution to the club, and their inspiration to her. Sadly, 3 other members were unable to attend to collect their certificates awarded earlier in the year.
Baroness Hale
We were delighted to hear that our Patron, Baroness Hale, will be attending our September meeting. A group of us will be seeing her at the Georgian Theatre Royal for an evening presentation of her life, as her memoirs are about to be published under the apt title of “Spider Woman”.
Richmond 950
Sue Young told us that volunteer places are still available for the Community Archaeology Dig at Richmond Castle (part of the Richmond 950 programme), and we are invited to contribute Reminiscences of Richmond – details to follow. Sue encouraged us to visit the exhibition ‘950 Years of Communications in Richmond’ which the Rotary Club are showing in the Town Hall in August. She also distributed copies of the programme for the Walking and Books Festival, scheduled for September, which she and Judith Clarke have been helping to organise. It is good to see the town and community groups returning to “normal” activities.
Future meeting locations
Our social convener, Jane Priestley, reported that we are still on the hunt for meeting premises, as the Cricket Club is no longer able to provide for us as previously. We hope to have something in place in time for September’s meeting. In the meantime, we will meet in August for a picnic supper at The Jonas Centre, which will enable club members to see the tree planting and memorial bench we provided earlier this year.