Once again, Hope for Belper will be aiming to add a bit of seasonal warmth by handing out cups of hot chocolate at the town’s annual Christmas Eve carol service in the Market Place.
This will be the third such project for the team following similar handouts on New Year’s Eve 2007 and Christmas Eve 2008.
The carols get under way at 8pm in the Market Place. This year’s event will be led by Belper Baptist Church minister Ken Reynard.
Above: The group of young people responsible for this year’s successful Dreamscheme project on Belper’s Parks Estate. Below: the tape-cutting ceremony that took place a the conclusion of the work. Pictures courtesy of Derbyshire County Council.
The dust has settled, the BBQs have been put away, and life for the young people who made the Dreamscheme the great success it was have settled back into more familiar rhythms.
I hope their memories of that week will be fond and proud as they certainly showed what can be achieved if you put your hearts and backs into a project.
The weather was kind to us over the Dreamscheme week and all the outdoor tasks were completed. Staff at the Belper Children’s Centre are now the happy recipients of a new back garden complete with large shed, seating area, bird feeders and newly painted buggy store.
But the young people’s achievements did not stop there. During the week they produced bat boxes for the local park, carried out an estate clear-up day collecting a large amount of rubbish from local residents homes and, on the concluding day, planned and delivered a community BBQ for well over 100 adults and children.
The young people hand made and delivered invites to local residents, baked cakes, cooked over 200 items on the BBQs, supervised a bouncy castle, helped the Children’s Centre staff with face painting and showed people around the new garden.
It was clear through comments from passing residents that the young people’s hard work was very much appreciated and the positive message of the Dreamscheme, that ‘young people can do wonderful things’ had come across loud and clear.
Our thanks go to all the adult volunteers who supervised and encouraged the young people over the week (and for the intrepid few that chaperoned them on the trip to Alton Towers!). Also thanks to the long suffering residents of Alder Way who put up with noise, skips and mess, the Children’s Centre staff who were so accommodating and enthusiastic, the Fire Service for attending with a big shiny fire engine, and local businesses Amberol for supplying the planters and Galafield Home and Garden for their expertise and design work.
This project would not have been possible without the generous financial support of many private donors along with grant support from Derbyshire Community Foundation, Amber Valley Housing Community Chest Fund, and Derbyshire Constabulary.
There will be a full report produced over the next few weeks and we will make copies available as far as we are able.
Gareth Greenwood – Coordinator, Hope for Belper
Hope for Belper’s second Dreamscheme project got under way today .
This year’s scheme, which follows the successful project in the Whitemoor area last August, is based on the town’s Parks Estate and will run until Friday.
The scheme was promoted through assemblies at Belper School and the first 20 intrepid young people to return the booking form have been allocated a place.
Much of the work of this year’s scheme will be taking place in and around the Family Centre on Alder Road, with the young people aiming to provide a facelift for the garden.
“The main idea behind Dreamscheme is that young people can do wonderful things! Too often we hear the opposite,” says H4B chairman Gareth Greenwood
“Dreamscheme gives young people an opportunity to have fun together in a safe and supervised context doing things that benefit the community. They learn new skills, achieve news goals and build their confidence and self esteem.”
As well as the landcsaping work around the Family Centre, the group of 20 young people will also be organising a community BBQ.
We’ll let you know how they get on.
Part of the original vision of “Hope for Belper” when it was first launched last year was to organise things which people can invite their friends and neighbours along to and so build bridges within the community.
With this in mind we are launching a walking club this month under the Hope umbrella which we hope will be one small way in which we can do this.
We will aim to do five or six walks a year which will be a mixture of difficult, moderate and easy walking – a couple of hard slogs in the Peak District, some family-friendly rambles around Belper, and one or two like in between.
We know this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but for those who like this sort of thing we reckon it will be a great way to build friendships.
The first walk will be on Saturday 9 May and will start from the junction of the A6 and A610 at Ambergate at 10,30am. It will follow a route up Crich Chase to the war memorial, back to Whatstandwell, across to Alderwasley and finally back to Ambergate via Shining Cliff Woods.
The route is eight miles long in all so including a break for lunch we would expect the walk to take 4-5 hours.
If that sounds like too much effort, the half-way point is the Derwent Hotel, Whatstandwell, so you are welcome to join us (or leave us!) at that point.
If you would like to come along, please email Paul at nottinghamroad@hotmail.co.uk. And remember to invite a friend!
Hope for Belper 