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!

OUT AND ABOUT BLOG: It's Begnning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Friday will be 1st December so I officially have an excuse to talk about Christmas! Put your hand up if you're ready for it?

OK, so I may not be ready for Christmas but I am actually looking forward to it. I will be cooking for 13 people and each time I mention that to anyone, I am reliably informed we need to put a teddy at the table to make it 14! Either I have never cooked for 13 or this is a Cheshire thing and being a southerner, I have never heard of this superstition before. Either way, Jasper our dog now has an excuse to sit at the table with us!

Local Christmas Markets

This weekend you will find me at the Richmond Village Traditional Christmas Markets with two hats on: I will be blasting out the Christmas tunes from the RedShift van whilst also manning my Tropic Skincare stand in the warmth of the main building. Please do pop along and buy some lovely unique gifts and enjoy a mulled wine, or three, whilst browsing.

Also this weekend there is a Christmas market in Nantwich and the ETSY handmade market at Reaseheath so really there is no excuse to not at least start your shopping!

Red Hair, Red Dress Affair

Last week I ventured up to Knutsford to attend my dear friend Sue France’s “Red Hair, Red Dress Affair” event at the Courthouse. Sue runs a fantastic ladies' networking group called Creative Connecting in Cheshire. We had a lovely meal and listened to a great guest speaker called Nikki Pattinson, an inspirational woman who gave a hilarious, moving and insightful speech. The event raised over £700 for a charity called Gift of a Wedding, an incredible charity that stages weddings within weeks, or even days, for terminally sick people.

I met Sue France on 6th September 2010, the day RedShift began broadcasting and we have been friends ever since. Her events (ladies only, sorry chaps) are always unique and well attended with business women from across Cheshire and Sue has been such a wonderful support and encourager to me over the last seven years.

South Cheshire Chamber Business Awards

Friday night saw me hosting the South Cheshire Chamber Business Awards for the 7th year, and 5th year with my fabulous co-host Paul Boniface.

Paul and I both love this event and seeing how much it has grown in size and calibre of entrants and finalists over the years is great. I am looking forward to hosting the Chamber Awards radio show this Friday from 10am - 2pm with all the winners and sponsors so please do tune in at www.redshiftonline.org.

Back to the Future Project

A quick mention for our Back-to-the-Future inter-generational project again. We are looking for people over 70 to join us on Saturday 9th December from 2-4pm at Nantwich Museum. We will be making Christmas table decorations and singing carols by candlelight. We have several young people booked on and we have four spaces for under 20 year olds and seven spaces for over 70 year olds. To book onto this fun and free inter-generational project, please call 01270 440 750.

Volunteer of the Week
My choice for Volunteer of the Week has to be the lovely Paul Boniface who has been with us for six years. Paul presents Easy Like Sunday Morning and really does put his heart and soul into it. He plans his show theme, features and songs so carefully and he has a loyal following of regular listeners.

Paul’s commitment to, and support of, RedShift goes far beyond producing and presenting his show.

Paul frequently supports me at events and over the last six months he has raised an incredible £3,464 as part of the #ClimbKili2017 campaign, a quarter of which will be coming to RedShift to support our youth activities.

Thank you Paul!