Out & About: The Second Part of Liz's Look Back Over 2017

Big Day Out

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I do hope you had a peaceful and happy one. As I am actually writing this just before Christmas I'm hopeful that I will have had a peaceful and happy one too! While you read this I am probably dragging myself to the gym as the official 16-week countdown to our wedding will have began – yikes!

Skoolszfest

So, leading on from last week's review of 2017 and we are skipping into July with our crazy month. Starting off with the first weekend and I attended not one, but three events with the RedShift RoadShow; Skoolzfest in Nantwich, VolFest in Congleton and the Manchester Bombing fundraiser at Nantwich Town FC.

We celebrated my dear Grandpa's 95th birthday closely followed by my 40th with a super 80s-themed party in our garden which was topped off by the announcement from Michael-John that we had got engaged a couple of days previously. What a whirlwind of loveliness July was! I had so many kind and thoughtful gifts (mostly gin related!) and cards for my birthday and then another flurry of cards for our engagement. I certainly felt very special indeed!

Each July we provide the PA kit for the Aqueduct Marina Open Day, always a lovely family day out. We were also the lucky recipients of a grant from Baker Wynne and Wilson as part of their Community Pledge for our youth activities and I am delighted to say we enjoyed listening to John Baker being interviewed/grilled by Ben and Dan, two of our young presenters. They present Musical Monday which is a fantastic, fun-filled show, broadcast every Monday between 5 pm and 6 pm.  Take a listen to Part 2 of their Christmas Special, featuring John Baker: mixcloud.com/RedShiftRadio/musical-mondays-with-ben-dan-181217.

July of course is Nantwich Show and with Michael-John as the Chairman and me

RedShift Community Garden
at Nantwich Show

organising the RedShift Community Garden on Show day and the Big Day Out (see photo top) which takes place on the Sunday after the show, we are like ships that pass in the night during that month, ensuring that our events are planned and executed to the best of our ability. Thankfully, despite the weather being pretty grotty, both events went ahead but both saw a dip in income as attendance was down.

Richmond Village Dog Show

August involved some more #ClimbKili2017 training, this time all on the flat and involving a few drinks with our 18 mile pub crawl. August also saw the Richmond Village Dog Show, another walk up Snowdon and a rather wet Willaston Social Club fun day in aid of the Royal British Legion. 

My August highlight has to be the launch of our Back to the Future inter-generational project, which saw a group of 13 over 70s and 9 under 20 year olds, all enjoying afternoon tea and a quiz whilst getting to know each other. This project continues in 2018 so please call 01270 440 750 if you would like to join.

The #ClimbKili2017 Team

September was another big month: our much anticipated and trained for walk up Kilimanjaro, the highest free-standing mountain in Africa. 14 walkers departed and thankfully 14 walkers returned having had the experience of a lifetime. Thank you so much to each and every walker who took part to help raise nearly £20,000 which was split between our youth activities at RedShift, the Wingate Centre, CRY for Matthew and the Dementia Care Appeal at Mid Cheshire Hospitals.

October was thankfully fairly quiet allowing me to fully recover from Kilimanjaro whilst November included hosting two firework displays and the Chamber Business Awards and even an attempt at wedding dress shopping.

December is always a lovely month, starting as ever with the Weston Christmas Lights in

aid of the Donna Louise Hospice and our Christmas Community Hub drinks at Residence in Nantwich. The RedShift PA kit was put to good use at the Richmond Village Traditional Christmas Market, the Tatton Yule Yomp and the rescheduled Hope House Santa Dash in Nantwich. Finally, my father-in-law's donkeys Betty and Anne had three trips out to put a smile on the faces of people at the Wingate Centre, St Mary's Church in Nantwich and on Christmas Eve, St Margaret's Church in Wrenbury.

In addition to the myriad events attended on behalf of RedShift, I have also trained 16 new presenters and work experience students, interviewed 43 people on the radio and been to 38 aerobic classes (60 is the target for next year!) ... oh, and I have climbed nearly 6,000 metres to the top of Africa! I think that deserves a large G&T! 

This article appeared in Crewe Chronicle on 27th December 2017.  Please look out for my "Out and About" page each week in the Crewe Chronicle. For more information about any of the items in this article, please email us here at RedShift or call us on 01270 440 750. 

Out and About Blog: Christmas Events Aplenty in This Week's RedShift Round Up

Liz 's Christmas tour includes Weston Lights, Richmond Village, Residence and the RedShift Christmas Party ...

How much can I cram into my article this week? It's been spectacularly busy and my plan was to go for a chronological approach ... but one event stood out as the highlight of my week.

Weston Christmas Lights

It's Sunday evening and I have just returned home from one of our community’s most fabulous events: The Weston Christmas Lights. I wasn’t feeling 100% on Friday for the launch night so I popped along tonight with my Mum and Michael-John. We were just a few minutes ahead of the switch-on so I was able to video it as each and every light sprung to life, and I have to admit, once again, I found the experience quite moving.

Graham Witter, from Carter Green’s Farm on Jack Lane, Weston, first opened his parents' farm five years ago to raise money for the Donna Louise Hospice, a charity very close to his family's heart.

Graham’s sister Jessica sadly passed away on New Year’s Eve 2015 and had received a huge amount of support and respite care from the Donna Louise. Please help Graham and his family smash the fantastic £22,680 raised last year by popping down between 6.15pm and 9pm every single evening until 28 December.

You can enjoy the wonderful lights, a chat and selfie with Santa, and even an ice cream from the Whitby Morrison ice cream van in return for a donation.

Richmond VillageTraditional Christmas Market

On both Saturday and Sunday I enjoyed the Richmond Village Traditional Christmas Market. I was playing the festive tunes with RedShift and also running my Tropic Skincare stand. I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend, watching the children enjoy a festive donkey ride and face painting by former RedShift presenter, Sharon from Hullabaloo Kids.

South Cheshire Chamber Business Awards

On Friday last week, I hosted my annual four-hour Chamber Business Awards Show. I love being able to chat to the winners and sponsors in more detail than the time allows on stage at Crewe Hall at the Awards themselves. The AudioCasts from the show are available to listen to via our website www.redshiftonline.org.

RedShift Community Hub Christmas Drinks

Back to Thursday of last week and it was another special annual event - our Community Hub Christmas drinks at the Residence of course!  We had a lovely evening and must say a huge thank you to Ben Rafferty and his team for looking after us so well and sponsoring our canapes and welcome drinks.

RedShift Team Christmas Party

I am looking forward to our team Christmas party tonight at Regent’s Park. It has been organised by our youth volunteers who have invited the #ClimbKili2017 walkers to thank them for the fundraising that is going directly towards the running costs of our youth projects and activities.

Crewe Pledge Meeting

Last week I attended a Crewe Pledge meeting at South Cheshire College. I haven’t been able to attend the last couple of meetings and it was good to see how well the team of business and education members has grown. Communication and knowledge sharing has really developed to help relationships and opportunities prosper for businesses and education in Crewe. Find out about the Crewe Pledge here: www.thecrewepledge.co.uk

Santa Floats Visit Nantwich

I promised to give Santa himself a mention this week ... well, his team of helpers from Crewe Rotary, Nantwich Rotary and the Round Table! Yes, we have three super teams of Santa Floats that cover Crewe & Nantwich collecting for local charities. If you would like to help one of the teams of volunteers, please drop me a line and I will pass your details on: hello@redshiftonline.org.

Volunteer of the Week

My Volunteer of the Week needs no further introduction as it has to be - of course - the fabulous Graham Witter (photographed at the top, with me and my Mum). Graham not only gives up his December (and hundreds of hours throughout the year to prepare and build sponsorship) to raise a huge amount for his favourite charity the Donna Louise Hospice, but he also gets stuck into other events throughout the year including the Nantwich Food Festival, Nantwich Show and our Big Day Out event. The world needs more Grahams and in my humble opinion, at his young age of just 23 years old, he is a superb addition to our great community. Happy Christmas and thank you Graham!