It was another inspiring Club meeting on 12 Feb when we welcomed new Member Linda Middleton, and heard from Christy Mitchell of Grow Chiswell Green.
New member induction: Linda Middleton
It is always a special evening when we officially welcome a new member to our Club. On Monday 12 February all Club Members were proud to welcome Linda Middleton. Jane Slatter, the Membership Officer for the Club, was leading the meeting and is photographed here presenting Linda to the Club as its newest Member.
Linda has lived in Harpenden for 30 years, having been brought up in Hong Kong and then Northamptonshire. Work wise, Linda has worked in social housing field either for the local council or housing associations until the last few years. Linda moved into the Transformation and Business Improvement areas and has also spent a spell in Customer Delivery at St Albans Council. She has served as Board member for two Housing Associations and is very aware of the impact housing, especially poor housing or the lack of it has, particularly on women.
Linda is a member of a local book group – perhaps she’d like to join ours? She loves to travel and enjoyed a trip to Borneo last year. Other interests include the theatre, visiting art galleries and generally getting out and about!
Linda told us that she was attracted to Soroptimists by the idea of it being an organisation of women helping women.
Welcome Linda!
Speaker: Christy Mitchell – Grow Chiswell Green
Helen Byrne, Plant Team facilitator introduced our speaker Christy Mitchell of Grow Chiswell Green (they are pictured here). Christy has been instrumental in setting up a community garden in Chiswell Green. Grow Chiswell Green started last year after much hard work from Christy and her team. Her vision has been to find local space to bring the community together to grow plants and vegetables in a shared space; to build something beautiful where people could grow as individuals. Everyone who joins also becomes a joint owner of the space so everything is shared. They are not attempting to make the perfect garden. Things do go wrong. The role of Grow Chiswell Green is to bring the community together. Christy had had the idea whilst on maternity leave, thinking she could learn about gardening and it would be somewhere to meet people. She is not a gardener but as Chair she has brought in a team of people who have the skills she lacks to help her make this idea come to fruition. The best part has been meeting lots of new people. She has met with some resistance from locals which has been hard at times and has had to be decisive. She has got funding, and will be using it to make paths more accessible and also raised flower beds. There will be open days in the summer and workshops.
Members were asked for suggestions as to how the funding could be used? Barbara suggested that they offer to take over the remains of the butterfly world in Greenwood Park as it needed work and would be close to their garden. Christy will take this idea back to her committee. Bev suggested that she contact OVO who might be interested in doing an outdoor theatre performance in or near the garden.
Janet asked how many were in the core group? Christy replied that there were 8 on the committee and about another 20 who were active on the WhatsApp group. Helen asked how she got the group together? It was through social media mainly.
Christy said anyone can visit the garden – it is always open – it is at the Midway Surgery end of Greenwood Park.
Jane thanked Christy for coming to talk to us – she said she loved the idea that the garden was not only about growing plants but also about growing people.
The following day Jane, Bev, Debbie and Barbara were volunteers at the annual pancake race in St Albans.
Home-Start Pancake Race St Albans Tue 13 Feb
Unfortunately Shrove Tuesday was a very wet day in St Albans- but that couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm of all the competitors – click here for me about the event: https://stalbanstimes.co.uk/events/pictures-and-video-st-albans-pancake-race-2024/
Before the event Barbara and Gill had visited shops and businesses in the town with leaflets drumming up teams to compete – obviously a success because there were 42 teams this year – the most ever!
Barbara, Bev, Debbie and Jane were all tasked with selling raffle tickets on the day. See the pics of 4 damp ladies with soggy raffle tickets and a damp hippo mascot called “Hope”.
All volunteers received a thankyou message from Home-Start: On behalf of everyone at Home-Start Herts, we would like to say a HUGE thank you for your fantastic support at the St Albans Pancake Festival 2024. We appreciate your commitment to our cause! Your contributions played an integral role in making this event a resounding success and together, we raised more awareness and funds to support families in need across Hertfordshire. Final amount raised will be announced very soon so keep your eyes peeled! Your positive energy and teamwork (especially in the rain!) embodied Home-Start Hertfordshire’s spirit, and we’re thankful to have such dedicated volunteers.”
The event raised an amazing £5,534 including £240 in the raffle!
