At our first business meeting of 2005, we were concerned with a couple of Community Service items, to begin with: the recycling of unwanted spectacles and the Message in a Bottle emergency health information scheme.
Spectacle receptacles were to be placed at the Co-op and at the Health Centre on Shilburn Road, so that the Lions Club International agency could forward them to developing countries for their re-use by people who would appreciate them.
The Message in a Bottle scheme was taken up, to be promoted across the Allen Valleys. This scheme, as still (2022) identified by the NHS, involves sequestering important and critical health information necessary in case of emergency, in a clearly marked bottle that is placed in a vulnerable person’s refrigerator or freezer.
After due consideration of these schemes, we moved on to other business, at least one item of which concerned the upcoming 1st Anniversary Charter Evening, which was to be grandly formal and somewhat pricey at a princely fee of £25/ticket.
But we were already considering how to create a brilliant Christmas light display around the square, with moves afoot to inveigle the Parish Council (said to be convening a special works committee/fund-raising effort). Nigel Baynes sent word that the Dene Clear-Up should be happening sooner rather than later, as foliage would start to erupt in the spring, making the work impossible if we didn’t get it started soon. We were looking at raising money for a marquee that we could actually own, rather than hire every year, for the May Fair.
So as the year began, we were settling down to useful endeavours, and not neglecting the sense of party either.