Princes Trust Presentation

The Progressive Club played venue to the Team 266 Prince's Trust Presentation celebration. 

The Prince's Trust was set up 35 years ago and has a number of strands including supporting people in need of skills and confidence development through to assistance with business start up. The group presenting here, team 266, consisted of 7 young people from Tamworth who were struggling to gain employment and could develop some of their confidence and skills through Prince's trust.

They all took part in a 12 week course which included many items of problem solving team building and other essential skills learning including first aid and in this case DIY, along with the need to fund raise towards a particular project.
On of their fund raising ideas was to kidnap me as Mayor of Tamworth, a very bizarre experience but a lot of fun.

during the 12 weeks they had plenty of experiences including residential trips, and a DIY project to decorate the Tamworth Canoe Club rooms, this project turned into a larger one when the walls they were painting fell apart and the you people were left wit the problem of finding a new wall covering to put up before the painting began.

The 8 people  that completed the course and gained their certificates last night have been on a fantastic journey and have all now either got volunteer placements of job offers as well as having improved their CV's. One of the participants commented that this course has taught them that you can turn your life around and start again putting your old life behind you.

It was really nice to see these people succeed when in the past they had struggled and the only future they could see was signing on. The princes trust do a great job and of the young people they help 85% of them go on to employment, education or training.

Student fire fighters Presentation

Student Fire Fighting vehicle

Today was a celebration and awards ceremony for the first set of student firefighters to be trained and graduate in Tamworth.

Here I met 7 of the student fire fighters who have attened at 12 week course consisting of one day per week. these young people had recived some excellent training and through 2 displays showed us what they had learnt. this wasn't thoery or playing around this was proper training in fire and rescue from cutting the roof off a car to fighting fires with breathing aparatus.

In the past student fire fighters have had to travel out of Tamworth to do this course, but now we have the fantastic facilities at Belgrave the benefits are fantastic.

A couple of the things I noticed today included 1, the weather 2, the team 3, the attention to detail.
The weather - as i sat in the cold watching I thought to myself how it would have been nice to have done this on a warm dry day, but then stopped and thought, the actual fire and rescue personal don't have a choice if its a real emergency. And today (no offence meant) you couldn't tell the difference between the regular staff and the teenagers.
The Team, these young people came from different school around Tamworth and had not met before but still in the 12 hours they worked together and developed a strong team, they way they used the spinal board and cut the roof off the car was a really team effort and was carried off seamlessly
Attention to detail and discipline, my teenage kid and other children really struggle to tidy up, but these in the team did what they did in the rescue and without a thought put all the equipment back away where is should be without a second thought.

This was a great experience and honour to share with the families, I hope the courses continue and would recommend all high schools to be aware and find out about this opportunity for young people in Tamworth.

Event of 30 years ago, Penlee and the Solomon Browne Crew

6 Sleeps to Christmas and on this day 30 years ago a particular event changed the lives of at least 16 families who lost loved ones in a single incident, of the 16 who lost their lives 8 of them were volunteers for the RNLI on board the Solomon Browne, Penlee Lifeboat, out trying to save the lives of others.

Exactly 7 months ago to the day I wrote a blog entry land-locked-tamworth-its-mayor-and-rnli where I retold the story of the disaster and explained why I would be supporting the RNLI as my chosen charity this year.  for a good but brief account of the story I have found a BBC Link of the story at the time  and included a youtube video I have found

There are so many elements to this story of heroism that I find touching and or upsetting. These men were volunteers preparing to celebrate Christmas with their families only 6 days later, the coxswain refusing to let 2 members of the same family go on the rescue due to the severity of the weather, a group of these guys were sitting relaxing the the local British legion when the alarm was raised and off they went never to return.

I'm not sure but I think I understood the heroism of this story straight away even though I was only 5 at the time, I'd had all my family holidays in Cornwall and part of every holiday was seeing a lifeboat somewhere so may be it was just that I knew of these hero's.

Anyone can write about these things and I fall into that anyone category but it takes something special to do what the volunteers of the RNLI do. Please support the RNLI though any of my events or direct through their website and local branches, none of us know when we will need their support. http://www.rnli.org.uk/

Would I go out tonight in an horrific storm to save others? I'd like to think so but I really don't ever want to be asked the question.

Wilnecote Rest Home Christmas Carols

A bitterly cold windy and wet evening was not a problem as we went inside Wilnecote Rest Home for their carol service.

Everyone was seated as we kicked off we 9 readings and a dozen carols, led by both local churches. As can be imagined some of the residents are becoming quiet elderly and so we were all allowed to remain seated for the duration.

I was really nice and relaxed sitting together and singing carols, I really noticed how many of them knew to carols so well and didn't have to look at the words at all.

Local man Graham Allcote helped organise the event and spent weeks on his mobility scooter selling raffle tickets to raise funds for the centre.

Really nice cosy event

Bolehall Manor Club Childrens Christmas Party

Bolehall Manor on Amington road is a spectacular building which many of us drive past regularly, today the venue played host to a children's Christmas party which was open to members families. I arrived whilst the children were eating their party food and shortly before Santa handed out the presents.

Bolehall Manor is always a pleasure to visit and looked great today being so busy and decorated for Christmas, the 45 kids made it look really busy. Then came the moment they had all been waiting for Santa arrived, there was a great moment when Santa announced to the cheering children that he had some helpers, his elves and the Mayor of Tamworth, at this point the kids stopped cheering looked at me then turned back to Santa and started cheering again. it was a great moment.

The keen eyed readers will have noticed a film crew who were at Bolehall Manor filming for a BBC documentary about the economy and have been following a member of the directors of the club so came along today to film the Christmas Party.

The atmoshere was really nice and there was a great mix of all ages of the families attending

Wilnecote & Dosthill Seniors Christmas Lunch

Wilnecote Parish hall played host to the 3rd Wilnecote & Dosthill Seniors Christmas Lunch. I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived at the number of people there, nearly 100 older people from the area had been nominated by people in the community to be awarded tickets to this free event. We were all treated to a fantastic Christmas meal, a Free raffle (prizes donated by the community) and entertainment from Happy Feet Dancing.

Due to another Mayoral ccommitment I had to leave before the dancing started but I was there long enough to welcome the guests and wish them a Happy Christmas and a good new year.not to mention enjoy a great meal that was served tremendously efficiently, 100 people eating 3 courses in an hour

This event, I believe, was organised by Cllr Lee Bates who funded it to the tune of around 1700 pounds from his local community fund.

We were joined by some influential people of Tamworth past and present including Terry and Pat Dix (Pat is chair of Dosthill PACT,  both are former Mayors and Terry was leader and Chairman of Staffordshire County Council), Pat Standon (chair of Wilnecote Residents Group), Brian and Joan Jenkins (former MP for Tamworth and both former Mayors of Tamworth) Brian Beale (county and borough councillor), Tina Clements (Deputy Mayor) and of course Lee Bates (county and borough councillor and former Mayor).

This event also served as a presentation for some Staffordshire Volunteer awards which amongst others Terry Dix was awarded on for the contribution he has made to the Dosthill community. When I get a list of all those who received awards I will add them to this blog

As I said at the event "councils don't build communities, communities build communities" and today the 90 odd people that were there showed that community spirit is alive and growing in Dosthill and Wilnecote.

Another Great Christmas event

Amington Band Christmas Concert

I've just got in from tonights Mayoral duty and I'm that excited about it I have had to turn the computer on and write this blog entry.

So I have seen Amington Band before and would recommend them to anyone especially if you have not seen them before. Tonight was a fantastic treat, we had the band playing a variety of pieces and playing backing to a great Tenor Richard Lloyd Owen as well as the Birmingham Citadel Timbrel Brigade.

The Night began with the band playing Little Drummer Boy and White Christmas, then came the Birmingham Tinbrel ladies came out and performed with Amington Band providing the music, for anyone who doesn't know what a Timbrel group does (me about 4 hours ago) search them on google, but it involves some really good tambourine dancing with tassel's. When a Child is Born was followed by the Tenor singer who entertained and amazed us with his vocal talents.

Another highlight were the 2 performances by The Lichfield Players who were really good and added some great humour to the evening.

I had a great night and really enjoy listening to Amington Band but for me the highlight of the night was the last set, the audience was asked to stand and join in singing some Christmas carols. The whole of the assembly rooms were on their feet, the band was playing louder than they had all night, all the other performers joined then on stage and we raced through 9 carols with an atmosphere and volume you would not believe if you were not there, we all really raised the roof. Everyone joined in and sang their hearts out, it was truly a fantastic moment in such a great venue.

Wilnecote Childrens Christmas Party

So it was straight from Stonydelph Arch to Wilnecote Working Men's Club for the Wilnecote Children's Christmas Party,
This event was organised by Tina Clements and had around 15 children attending from the very you through to around 9 years. It was a nice little event and when Cllr Clements couldn't find the present for Pass the Parcel she had to improvise and came up with the great kids game of Pass the Beer Mat, when the music stops the person with the beer mat is out. To the kids the beer mat didn't matter they were having a great time at their Christmas party.

The culmination was a Christmas present and a photo with the Mayor of Tamworth. great event and great fun to attend.

Santa comes to Stonydelph Arch

For the first time Santa and his helpers landed at Stonydelph Arch, Crossfell. any child that attended with their parent were able to sit with Santa and have a FREE gift.

Other attractions were also on hand including face painting, free craft sessions making table centre pieces and Christmas decorations, Finger printing and mug shots by the Police, a visiting Fire Engine, tombola, raffle and finally must not forget the Community cafe providing refreshments.

Throughout the morning around 100 people visited on top of the group of volunteers from the community who help put the event on. It was a great display of community togetherness, local councillors, public sector staff and volunteers all pulling together to make this free Christmas event happen for the benefit of the local area. However there were some disappointed faces when the fire engine suddenly disappeared on a shout, but all was restored on its return.

This event and the Amington one last month was supported by my Local Community Fund

No big message here just reporting on some of the fantastic work that the local Arches are doing , great event well worth looking out for next year if there is another one.

BiBs breast feeding peer group

You know the feeling when you get invited to something and your not quite sure what to expect, well today was on of those feelings as I made my way to the Breast Feeding Peer Group graduation at Glascote Sure Start centre.

I was expecting to get there and find half a dozen new moms who had chosen to breast feed their new child, what I was a room fiull of volunteers who not only had chosen to breast feed their babies but also help other moms who maybe struggling to do so. I learnt that the group now had 14 volunteers moms providing advice and support including a 24/7 phone line and home visits. In that last 20 months they have helped 285 moms at anti natal stage. We presented a number of certifcates to the newly qualified peers.

This group provides a fantastic service which is not provided by any public service, the advice has been put together with personal expeirence and training all this is done by the 14 volunteers free of charge. I was told of many visits made to new moms homes for periods of 3 hours to help the mom breast feed. The great thing about this 'service' is that just when a mom is at her most anxious and worried about her new baby these ladies can provide calming advice, any mom who can not easily feed will immediately become worried and anxious, today I learnt of how it took some moms around a week to be able to achieve what they wanted, by which stage many would have given up.

So a really good afternoon with some great volunteers from our community.
I never did find out what the knitted breasts were about ????


I would recommend all moms to be or new moms should get in touch with Bibs at Surestart and consider their help with breast feeding or any other anxiety.

Long time no blog

Ok I have not blogged for an ages so I will be trying to fill this gap with memories of what I have been up to and back dating them.

Apologies

Staffordshire Performing Arts Christmas concert

A great afternoon in the warm protected from the cold by the Coton Centre we settled down to a great performance from local people young and adult who performed a wide array of pieces.

We were treated to a Christmas concert  (which this year was in December, we learnt last years was snowed off and so was held in February)which involved a rotation of 6 different groups including sax, strings concert band etc and had children as young as 8 performing.

It was a great enjoyable event.

I didn't realise (and maybe I should) that whilst Staffordshire performing arts carries the Staffordshire logo it is a separate entity and now has to bid for funding through central government. I hope that the good work of this organisation continues and I wish the friends of SPA all the luck in the world in fund raising and organising more concerts in the future.

the level of talent in Tamworth's youth is fantastic I only wish more people knew about it and not the odd few that blight out landscape

Help for heroes

Staurday morning (5th December) I attended a charity fund rasier for Help the Heroes at Topp Tiles at Wilnecote. This event also included the entrance to the Coop superstore and was orgainised by a local army cadet from Glascote who had invited other organisations to join in suck at the local police, fire service and sea cadets.
The cadets there were also treated to some one on one time with a current serving airman allowing an in sight into his day tro day life etc.

It was a nice small event and hopefuilly raised some cash for charity as well as brought sea and army cadents closer together