Community – Wellingborough Eco Group

What did we do in 22?

Thank you for being with us for a dramatic and successful year, we’ve all been on a journey of discovery and fulfilment, starting new things and sharing things too. What has been the highlight for you? Here’s a little guide to what we’ve been up to…

January

The year started with Swap Shops, Green Drinks, a Repair Café and gardening at our Community Allotment. Swap Shops were full of food from Redeem Funds and people were getting used to our Tuesday afternoon sessions in the Community Room at Glamis Hall. These also hosted our Tuesday Tidy Ups with Wellie Wombles where litter pickers came in for cup of tea. Green Drinks had six people attend and the Community Allotment was looking very tidy after a successful first year.

We planted 45 more ‘Queen’s Trees’ whips at our Community Allotment Tree Nursery, making 200+ trees available to groups, charities, churches and schools for the Queen’s Green Canopy as part of Jubilee celebrations in Wellingborough. 17 people joined our end of month litter pick at a very windy Dale End Park and we picked 47 bags full of litter, a chair, a road works barrier and cycle handlebars.

February

We celebrated the first birthday of Wellie Wombles at the UGLY MUG café, and at Tuesday Tidy Ups at Glamis Hall. Our Repair Café was at Glamis Hall‘s Indoor Car Boot Sale, where we relaunched Wellingborough Swap Shop as a swap or donate project. The following Tuesday we also launched Food Sharers to save even more food from going in the bin.

In partnership with Glamis Hall we started the Wellingborough Climate Action project with an invitation to Climate Conversations and promised a year long project to look at solutions for the climate crisis. With other Wellingborough Organisations and the Co-op, New Community Resilience Forums started for local people and organisations to work on helping the community cope with the cost of living crisis.

We finished off the month with our monthly Two Hour Tidy Up, where 22 litter heroes picked 49 bags full of litter, a chair, a shopping trolley, three child car seats, a tyre and a mattress at Newcomen Road Community Garden and on the surrounding streets.

March

We held three Climate Conversations with the Wellingborough Climate Action Project, at Glamis Hall, the Victoria Centre and Hemmingwell Skills and Community Centre. 60 delegates gave their points of view during the events, which included presentations from Councillor Ed Gemmell, North Northamptonshire Council, Electric Corby, the Green Party and Wellingborough Eco Group. The events were a great opportunity for local residents to find out more about climate change.

We cleared our Community Allotment Ready for planting, whilst Food Sharers and Swap Shop really took off in March, our Tuesday afternoons had never been so busy. Food Sharers saved free food for you, with collections from shops and more from Redeem Funds and Glamis Hall. Our Wellingborough Swap Shop bring, swap or buy sale had lots of books and other items.

On the last Saturday of the month, 35 #LitterHeroes took part in the Great British Spring Clean Two Hour Tidy Up in Wellingborough Town Centre, run in partnership with Wellingborough Town Council who are supplied our Wellie Wombles with new kit. We picked 50 bags of litter, five shopping trolleys, traffic cones and various cardboard boxes.

April

April kicked off with our regular Tuesday Tidy Ups, Food Sharers, Swap Shop and Green Drinks. Swap Shop started doing clothes and this proved very popular, saving loads of items from landfill and saving people lots of money! Repair Café during the indoor car boot sale fixed lots of items including a phone charger, key rings, dog collar, dog harness, vacuum cleaner, strimmer and a laptop fixed by Jonathan, and on her debut as a repairer a hiking pole and perfume bottle were fixed by Judy!

Pop up Swap Shops at Glamis Hall’s indoor car boot and at Animals in Need where we also had a Teddy and Easter Egg Tombola! Gina started her Community Garden on Hardwick Road by building raised beds, ably assisted by a few Eco Group volunteers; and lots of trees were distributed from the Community Allotment Tree Nursery as part of our Queen’s Green Canopy project, to community organisations and local councils in and around Wellingborough, including St Marks Church, Finedon Town Council and Greatwell Homes.

And at the end of the month Wellingborough Swap Shop collected lots of clothes, toys, books and crockery from Rushden Transport Museum as part of Nick Knowles Big House Clearout; and 23 litter heroes took part in our Two Hour Tidy for the Waendal Walk in Castlefields park and along the Embankment, picking up 29 bags full of litter, a shopping trolley, an incinerator and an upholstered box.

May

Wellingborough Climate Action Project started their workshops with four Energy Savers sessions, all focused on saving energy, understanding how we use it efficiently and thinking about renewable energy generation. The first on the 19th was Energy Basics, we discussed the basics about saving energy at home or at work and highlighted any quick wins. This was all about sharing ideas with those that joined us. There was also an Energy Use workshop at the end of the month.

Wellingborough Swap Shop was at Glamis Hall‘s Outdoor Car Boot Sale in the Community Room and all items were available for swaps or a small donation to the group. Our Repair Café was in the reception of Glamis Hall, but was very quiet. We held an Indoor Second Hand Market at Wilby Working Men’s Club and had a Plant Sale at Wellingborough Swap Shop at the end of the month.

Our Two Hour Tidy Up was in Croyland Gardens, where 16 litter picking heroes swept, lifted and picked 21 bags of litter, plus a scooter, piece of carpet and a full bag of compost! Wellingborough Library held a Jubilee Scarecrow festival, and both Wellingborough Eco Group and Wellie Wombles entered scarecrows.

June

At our Community Allotment, had a lot of stuff to get in, with plants left over from Wellingborough Swap Shop and more donated. Summer had started and there was no time to waste, but the flowers and weeds had taken over, so there was plenty to do! And we still had trees to go in for the Queens Green Canopy at out Tree Nursery too.

Wellingborough Climate Action Project’s Energy Savers Workshops continued with an Energy Saving Workshop and concluded the series with a Renewable Energy and Heating Workshop; in the second half of that workshop, we looked at Renewable Heating in greater detail, with a presentation from Darleen McCullough of Energywise Wales.

We had the Repair Café and Wellingborough Swap Shop on Saturday 11th June, in the Community Room and had a couple of other stalls with us outside. Our Repair Café looked at 3 printers, a lamp, a toaster, a hoover and a clock; and the Saturday Swap Shop had loads of stuff too, so much so we had books, DVDs and toys outside! Tuesday Swap Shops and Food Sharers continued with even more food and drink available, plus lots of great pre-loved items to swap or for a small donation.

15 litter picking heroes that took part in our Two Hour Tidy Up at the Bassett’s Close at the Armed Forces Family Fun Day. We picked 16 bags of litter, a plank of wood and a broken scooter. Thank you also to Dave from North Northants Council collected the bags. We also had a games stall at Fun Day and a great day was had by all.

July

We held a Wellingborough Swap Shop’s Big Summer Clear Out where we invited people to bring 1 bag, bring £2, bring yourself and fill their bag with clothes, books, DVDs, bric-a-brac and toys. Larger items was priced but nothing was more than £5. Weekly Swap Shops, Food Sharers and Tuesday Tidy Ups continued every Tuesday afternoon. We also held a games stall at Glamis Hall’s Family Festival.

Wellingborough Climate Action Project’s Sustainable Workshops started with a series of sessions looking at all aspects of sustainability. The first was an Assessing Our Impact Workshop and later in the month a Transition Workshop. At this workshop we looked at what does a sustainable life and work look and feel like and how can we get there (you can watch any of the workshops by clicking the links) The month concluded with a Sustainable Buildings Workshop.

This month’s special Love Parks Week group litter pick took place in Hemmingwell Park. 20 litter picking heroes that took part in our Two Hour Tidy Up and picked 56 bags of litter, a chair, some carpet and a shopping trolley, with the Hemmingwell Community & Skills Centre making us all cups of tea and coffee.

August

In August we were very excited to announce ECO HUB, the new home for Wellingborough Eco Group! Opening from 1st September 2022 and available 7 days a week at Glamis Hall in the Community Room for lots of events and activities. Heather Saunders, Chair of Trustees at Glamis Hall and Jonathan Hornett, Secretary of Wellingborough Eco Group, signed the lease this week for this exciting new facility.

The month started with Swap Shop, Food Sharers, Tuesday Tidy Ups and Green Drinks as usual, 7 people enjoyed a drink at The Queen’s Head on the first Tuesday of the month. Swap Shop and Food Sharers again was getting popular, with more food to share every week, including sandwiches and fridge food from Co-op Redhill. Shap shop had an abundance of toys, which kept the local kids happy. We also had a stall at the Town Council’s Summer Art Festival at ‘The Beach’ in Wellingborough Town Centre.

Wellingborough Climate Action Project’s summer series of Sustainability Workshops continued with with a workshop on Food and Waste. Jonathan lead an interactive workshop, ably assisted by Marion, plus Kerry from Food For Thought and Mary from Redeem Funds, who both presented their own sections. A further Moving to Sustainable Transport Workshop considered our transport options, with most modes and we compared their impacts.

Working Parties continued at the Community Allotment every Wednesday afternoon, but the weeds were winning and our Queen’s Trees were needing plenty of watering. Our end of month litter pick was a Bank Holiday Special, so we decided to tidy up the Town Centre and hold our second stall of the month on the market, this time with a community focus. 13 people who turned out for our monthly Two Hour Tidy Up and lots of little bits of litter picked, 15 bags filled!

September

To mark ECO HUB‘s opening day on the 1st September, we had a Celebration Café with free tea, coffee, cakes and pop, to start our ECO HUB with a pop! We then held an Energy Savers Workshop for people to come to and find out how saving energy saves you money. September also marks our third birthday, plenty to celebrate then! Join in, get involved, go ECO HUB!

New projects were added, Eco-Crafters on Wednesdays 1-3pm, Happy Cafes on Thursdays 12-2pm and Eco Club for Kids on Fridays 12-3pm. Repair Cafés were re-started and Swap Shops, Food Sharers and Tuesday Tidy Ups continued in their normal slot of 2-6pm. At the end of the month it was the Great Big Green Week, and we opened everyday with a different project on each!

This included a Climate Café and a Two Hour Tidy Up at ECO HUB, litter picking Queensway Park, where 15 litter pickers picked 25 bags of litter, a bike, some metal poles and various plastic things. The Climate Café was very popular, particularly with thirsty Wellie Wombles! We also made the teas at Wellingborough’s ‘Concert in the Park’ in Castlefields, serving up 95 cups of tea and coffee, plus snacks and lots of lovely homemade cakes.

Wellingborough Climate Action Project‘s Sustainability Workshops continued with a look at Nature and Pollution, where we discussed bio-diversity, talked about our impact on nature; and we then looked at air, water, land and plastic pollution, and at reducing waste in rivers and seas. To finish off with we worked on more sustainable living solutions.

October

We relaunched Repair Café on Saturday the 8th October 2022, at ECO HUB. We have set up a booking system, so people wanting items to be fixed are given a time slot to avoid waiting too long. Book your time slot now on our Repair Café page! Teas and cakes are also served to everyone who is attending.

The Co-op held their Sustainability Live event at ECO HUB on Thursday 6th October 12-2, for local people so they can find out about what the Co-op is doing to help tackle climate change and how they can play their part. Wellingborough Eco Group became a Co-op Local Community Fund cause, to find out more about our project and to choose us as your cause, click here https://membership.coop.co.uk/causes/73956

We had a Swap Shop, Food Sharers and information stall at the Victoria Centre for One World Week event, because this time the theme was sustainability, and held our monthly Two Hour Tidy up there, where our 24 litter picking heroes this morning who filled 30 bags of litter, plus two trollies, carpet, a paint tub and a kids car seat at our monthly Two Hour Tidy Up today. Free coats for kids from LIVE Team were added to Swap Shops, whilst Tuesday Tidy Ups, Food Sharers, Eco-Crafters, Happy Cafes and Eco- Club for Kids sessions continued at ECO HUB.

Wellingborough Climate Action Project finished off the Sustainability Workshops with what we need to adapt and at ways to adapt. This was the final workshop of the series of eleven, so it started off with a review and finished off with a question-and-answer session. You can watch all of the Workshops and more at wcap.org.uk/video

November

November started as usual with Tuesday Tidy Ups, Swap Shop, Food Sharers and Green Drinks. Greatwell Homes joined us at the first Happy Café of the month with their Warm Homes Team to give residents help and advice on how to keep warm this winter. Other Happy Cafes included Replay Board Games and Energy Savers sessions. Eco-Crafters and Eco Club for Kids were having fun, plus we had a few working parties up at the Community Allotment.

We had a stall at Nenescape, Sywell Aerodrome sharing what we do with delegates attending the conference. Lots of other organisations here too with the 80+ people from business, local government and community history and nature focused organisations. We had a Repair Café, Baby Wellingborough Swap Shop at ECO HUB and Glamis Hall Indoor Boot Sale and a a one off Vegan Food Sharers at Northants Vegan Food and Cruelty Free Fair at Animals in Need. Northants Veggies and Vegans also held their first Vegan Winter Warmer at ECO HUB.

At our Two Hour Tidy Up, 30 litter picking heroes that joined in Castlefields Park and around the surrounding streets to fill 36 bags with litter, plus retrieved a piece of tarpaulin, a scooter, a shopping trolley, three gas bottles and a baby walker! 30 people also joined in on the 30th to plant trees from our Community Allotment Tree Nursery in Castlefields Park, donated to Wellingborough Town Council, to create a copse of Rowan trees for the Queen’s Green Canopy and one Oak for King Charles.

Wellingborough Climate Action Project held two more Climate Conversations with the first on Friday 25th November 2022 at the Victoria Centre and at Glamis Hall on the 1st December. Both had presentations from WCAP, plus speakers from Wellingborough Town Council at Victoria Centre. Wellingborough Eco Group also did a presentation at both.

December

December is Advent Calendar month, and we embrace this to tell you all about the the good things for the community and environment that are happening in and around Wellingborough. This year’s calendar focused in part on the new Warm Spaces that are popping up all around the town. Click on the link to see all of them.

Glamis Hall and Wellingborough Eco Group are hosting Winter Warm Spaces, these started in the ECO HUB on the 1st December and take place on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, during December, January, February and March. We will also offer various themed Winter Warmers at weekends and Glamis Hall will offer a Winter Warm Space in their VIP Café on the second and fourth Saturday’s of the month.

ECO HUB has been really busy too, with Swap Shops and Food Sharers on Tuesdays and more. On Christmas Eve we held a special Food Sharers to recue food from local supermarkets in partnership with Redeem Funds. We opened again on Christmas Wednesday for an Unwanted Christmas Present Swap Shop too. Tonight Northants Veggies and Vegans are holding a New Year’s Eve Vegan Winter Warmer, and everyone is invited.

Wellingborough Climate Action Project‘s Climate Conversations continued at Glamis Hall on the 1st December. WCAP and Wellingborough Eco Group were this time joined by North Northants Council at Glamis Hall for a great conversation about the climate crisis and what we need to do about it.

A very busy year for Wellingborough Eco Group, thank you all for your support, hope to see you again soon, happy New Year everyone!

Iris-May Butterfly Kisses

Today’s Advent Calendar Window opens for anyone who has lost a baby and for Iris-May Butterfly Kisses, a Wellingborough Charity, set up to help and support families going through pregnancy and infant loss. Founder Stephane Mills said:

I founded Iris-May butterfly kisses in memory of my daughter Iris-May, she gained her wings at 8 days old after being born prematurely at 25 weeks 2 days. I love being able to support other families going through pregnancy and infant loss, as it does feel like you on your own. I want them to know that there are people out there for them.

Iris-May Butterfly Kisses was set up because of the pain of not having something to dress Iris-May in and because Stephanie could relate to the pain that other families will be feeling when they lose their baby. You can read their full story here.

Iris May Butterfly Kisses aim is to relieve the suffering and emotional distress amongst parents and families who have experienced the loss of a baby through ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, stillbirth, or neo-natal death; in four ways by:

Supporting newly bereaved parents by the provision of memory boxes and care packages. Memory boxes are filled with items to make memories such as blankets, handmade items, candles, inkless wipes with cards, sympathy cards, and memorial items.
Supplying books to young people in resources bags to help explain the loss of their sibling to other children.
Providing or assisting in the provision of bereavement suites in hospital units where such facilities are not provided by the NHS.
Raising funds for other charities who provide training and support to healthcare professionals, and others, to assist them in improving their help and support to such bereaved parents.

The charity was registered on 12 July 2018 and since then has provided 40 memory boxes to Rosie Maternity Unit in Cambridgeshire, and are now working with hospitals in Northamptonshire to help people locally. They are now going further afield with their memory boxes, making them available across the UK.

Last Christmas time they did a collection for Northampton General and Kettering General hospitals to purchase presents for patients who are staying in hospital over the Christmas period. At Easter they donated chocolate eggs to children whose families had gone through pregnancy loss, or if they had a sibling in the neo-natal unit.

They rely on donations and the support of their fundraisers. The funds raised ensure that they can continue to offer support and comfort to families going through pregnancy and infant loss across the country. There are many ways to get involved, whether you join in at their fundraising events or even host your own fundraising event.

Please do consider giving either your time or money to this worthy cause. You can find out how on their website, or on their Facebook page. Your kindness will help them to continue supporting families during their difficult time of losing their little one.

L.I.V.E. Team

Today’s Advent Calendar window opens for L.I.V.E. Team and all the wonderful things that they do including their free ‘Coats for Kids’. Here is a video of Debs from the team telling us about them:

L.I.V.E. stands for Learning Independence Volunteering Employment and they are a specialist team that exists to provide bespoke support to individuals (with learning disabilities and related barriers to employment) in four key areas – Learning, Independence, Volunteering and Employment.

Their aim is to provide meaningful opportunities, raise aspirations and provide support with an empowering ethos to enable individuals to fulfil their potential and exceed expectations. They teamed up with Greatwell Places to help clean up our communities during the summer, and to tidy up neglected gardens for their residents.

Since L.I.V.E. Team in Wellingborough launched ‘Coats for Kids’ on 25 October, they have handed out and helped many families in need, gifting 68 coats from their rails.

Their volunteers are currently stock-checking and washing new coat donations, to make sure they are in the best condition to be gifted out. They have a Coat for Kids rail at Swap Shop in ECO HUB Glamis Hall (NN8 3RU) on Tuesdays, Hemmingwell Community and Skills Centre (NN8 4TU) on Thursdays, and Irchester Library (NN29 7AA) six days a week.

They are still asking for donations for good condition kids coats. If you have any, please get in contact with them, and they could possibly arrange pick up or drop off. Call 07407800192 / 01604362197.

Co-op

Today we open our Advent Calendar window for the Co-op and for Jonathan, their Member Pioneer in Wellingborough. He is there to connect with the community and help support local causes via Wellingborough’s Co-op stores at Olympic Way and Redhill; and today he is hosting the Co-op Christmas Winter Warmer in our ECO HUB at Glamis Hall!

Join in with the Co-op to celebrate Christmas a week early!

Join us for a hot food swap. Jonathan, invites you to share food with us this Sunday lunchtime, 12:00-3:00. The Co-op will be supplying loads of party food and we will also be cooking up some tasty treats, plus there’s festive fun and games too, all welcome!

The Co-op employs Jonathan and other local Member Pioneers to continue to build stronger and more resilient communities by supporting projects offering: Fair access to food, fair access to mental wellbeing support and fair access to education and employment for young people. New for this year, the Co-op is also supporting sustainability and climate change projects, and we are one of this year’s causes!

Support local good causes with Co-op, choose a local cause today…

When you buy selected Co-op products and services, 2p for every £1 spent goes into your membership account, and they’ll split the same between like-minded organisations and local causes. The three causes in Wellingborough are Iris-May Butterfly Kisses, Teamwork Trust and Wellingborough Eco Group. You can select the local cause you would like to support on the Co-op App or at https://membership.coop.co.uk/causes

Working together to help everyone cope with the cost-of-living crisis…

Jonathan runs the Community Resilience Forum on the last Friday afternoon each month (except December) for local people, including businesses and community organisations, to work together to help everyone cope with the cost-of-living crisis. This forum also contributes and decides with Jonathan what is on the Wellingborough Organisations website and social media outlets, which also includes Wellingborough Forum on Facebook and Nextdoor.

We can all do our bit for our community. Together, we have raised £117m to support local communities across the UK sine 2016. Become a Co-op member and help support causes in your community. Download the app, join today and join in today to celebrate Christmas early or just to enjoy each others and Co-op food at this afternoon’s Co-op Christmas Winter Warmer. You will find us at ECO HUB Glamis Hall, Goldsmith Road, Wellingborough, NN8 3RU. See you there!

Toy Amnesty

We open today’s Advent Calendar for ‘We’re all in. Northants‘ and their Toy Amnesty, a toy and gift event that’s on this weekend. It takes place in the pavilion at Wilby playing fields, start time today is 12 and finishes at 3pm. Sunday start time is 11 and finishes at 2pm.

Not only will there be the gift event but there will be a tombola, refreshments, popcorn, cake, all sorts of items to buy and also an opportunity to pick up a free coat, hat and gloves. In this weather we all need these items and they are letting you choose one of each for free. (If you can afford to donate please do but not essential)

Here is a video tour of the Toy Amnesty uploaded as the event started!

We’re All In. Northants is a limited company and group run by Kat Neale, that promotes the local events going on in Northants and also sources items for members to purchase at cheaper prices than the shops. ALL money raised goes to her other groups Wilby Community Food Group, Wellingborough Baby Bank and their chosen monthly cause.

Kat decided to run a toy amnesty through December and January, so people could have a pre-Christmas clear out and give toys with life left in them to someone new. Any good/new/like new toys will be used for families struggling to afford presents at this time.

Toys in less than this condition but that could still make a child happy are being listed on her ‘Hand Me Downation‘ Facebook group for a small food or monetary donation, proceeds again going back into the food group, the causes and baby bank. Any unadoptable toys will be recycled or upcycled by being offered on a new craft/upcycling group Kat has just launched on Facebook called Procraftination.

Come and join Kat and all at Wilby playing fields pavilion, today 12-3pm or Sunday 11am-2pm, ask questions about We’re all in. Northants and her other groups, ask how you can support these or what projects are on the horizon! Wilby Community Food Group is also open at 124 Main Road, so do visit that too while you’re in the village.

Our Special 24 – Advent Calendar

Today’s Advent Calendar window opens for a family in Irthlingborough, who, this year for the 8th year running, are turning December in to ’24 days of giving’. They call this ‘Our 24 Special Advent Days’ and on each day they go somewhere in Northamptonshire to spread some cheer and show people that they are appreciated.

This year they are visiting many of the new warm spaces that are popping up across the county. In Wellingborough they have chosen to visit St Marks Church and our Winter Warm Space at ECO HUB in Glamis Hall. They donated a lovely hamper of essentials, and lots of games for our warm space, plus lots of toys and fun items for Wellingborough Swap Shop.

They started this tradition in 2015, which has now become as much a part of their build up to Christmas as putting up a tree, eating too much and singing along to Fairytale of New York! What they give depends on who they visit and what they think they will appreciate receiving. They have 2 parts to how they do things…

Firstly they:-

Make up refreshments boxes for counselling services, support groups, voluntary organisations and hospices.
Go shopping to donate to the counties food banks.
Bake cakes and mince pies for the residents and staff in care homes and homeless shelters.
Take animal food, bedding and treats to animal sanctuaries and rescue shelters.
Donate toys, books, games and craft supplies to toddler groups, and after school and youth clubs.
Support The Samaritans, the domestic abuse services and refuge, and the Northamptonshire Health Charity each year.

Secondly they have what they call Heroes for Heroes. This is where they take Cadbury’s heroes to thank people/groups for being real life Heroes. For this Reece and Maddie make a list of who they think should get a thank you for being a Hero. So far they have included all of our emergency services, road sweepers, library staff, refuse collectors, NHS staff and many more.

For each day they take photos of what they are doing and aim to post them on their Facebook page between 7-8pm. They show you where they went in the county, who they visited and what they gave. If it’s a service, charity or an organisation that could be of help or interest to our followers they will include information about what they do and if appropriate their contact details too.

In the beginning they provided everything they gave themselves. They still buy most of what they give, but in the last couple of years they have received some help from local shops and friends, either by donating money to fund some Cadbury’s heroes, food for the food banks or gifts for us to pass on to others.

If you haven’t already, please like their Facebook page and follow them to see where they end up and who they meet. Maybe even share their posts if you think it might make someone smile, or invite others to like their page too. Thank you for our gifts and everything you do for others the Our Special 24 family!

Wellingborough Library

Today’s Advent Calendar window opens for Wellingborough Library who are hosting a variety of activities right up until Christmas! There’s always something happening at the Library and the staff were very keen to tell us all about it, so we videoed them for you.

On the video, Dee and Sophie tell us the exciting things they do, and all about their new Warm Safe Space for Wellingborough this winter, that is offering free tea, coffee and soup during their opening hours, for those looking for a warm place to stay during these tough times.

Children can join in too with a huge number of activities including, starting today, a World Cup football challenge that runs until Christmas Eve! They’ll provide some colouring and activity resources for children to complete in the library or take home with them. There’s a variety of designs to create a ‘design your own football kit’. The library will display the entries where there’s space and an overall winner will be announced in the New Year!

Here are some more activities Wellingborough Library are doing during the rest of December:

Under 1’s Fun: Tuesday 13th and 20th 1:30pm – 2:30pm
Manga and Anime Club: Tuesday 13th 4:00pm – 5:00pm
Library Rhymetime: Wednesday 14th and 21st 9:45am – 10:15am
Library Bounce and Rhyme (Under 1s): Wednesday 14th and 21st 11:00am – 11:30am
Craft and Chatter Group: Wednesday 14th and Friday 16th 2:00pm – 4:00pm
Preschool Play: Thursday 15th and 22nd 9:30am – 10:30am and 10:30am – 11:30am
Family Fun Club: Saturday 17th and 24th 10:30am – 11:30am
Christmas Story Time: Every morning from Monday 19th through to Saturday 24th 9:30am – 10:00am

As well as having thousands of books, they have computers to use and meeting rooms for hire. The Library shop sells a selection of greetings cards, gift items, children’s toys and educational material. They are also the place to find out about local tourist information.

Opening hours

	Opens	Closes
Monday	9am	6pm
Tuesday	9am	6pm
Wednesday	9am	6pm
Thursday	9am	6pm
Friday	9am	6pm
Saturday	9am	5pm
Sunday	Closed	Closed

You will find them at Pebble Lane, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, NN8 1AS. They also have a busy Facebook page that shares lots of posts about their activities. Visit Wellingborough Library today!

Redeem Funds

Today we open our Advent Calendar window and doors to Redeem Funds. Join in with Redeem Funds for a Winter Warmer hot food swap at ECO HUB today 12:30-3:00. Bring your cooked food and savouries to this food sharing event, meet new people and old friends; it’s Christmas and it’s free to attend. Mary will also be cooking up lots of spicy treats!

Redeem Funds is a foodbank that offers lots of fruits, veggies and bread at two sites in Wellingborough for a small donation. They open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at Cowper Road and Sundays, and on Mondays and Tuesdays at Shakespeare Road. They also have frozen items if you need any. Join their busy Facebook Group for updates.

Watch the video of Mary showing us around her busy Cowper Road on Friday where they were providing Help Bags to those who requested them. Alongside their regular fresh food service, they now have added three new sections at Cowper Road to support families in our community:

Well-being section: For families or ladies struggling to buy sanitary pads are welcome to take one when needed but not every day please.
Pet Section: If you are sometimes struggling to buy pet food you are welcome to take a couple of items from there. But do speak with the members of the staff.
Help bag section: Grab any ten items (one of each item but some items you can have two) for extra £5 separate donation to foodbank. All items in this selves are on date.

Redeem Funds Help Bags and Fresh food available last Friday at Cowper Road.

Redeem Funds are a non profit Christian organisation that helps, supports and provides for destitute people. They are in need of ambient food and personal health items to share with those who need them. They support many families in Wellingborough and share with our Food Sharers every Tuesday, please do support them if you can.

Do join in to celebrate Christmas early or just to enjoy each other food at today’s Redeem Funds Winter Warmer. You will find us 12:30-3:00 at ECO HUB Glamis Hall, Goldsmith Road, Wellingborough, NN8 3RU. See you there!

Christmas Party

Today’s Advent Calendar window opens for the Victoria Centre who are ‘Lighting up the Darkness’ with their Christmas Interfaith Children’s Party this afternoon. Join them 2:00-5:00 for lots of traditional festive games from across the world, a bouncy castle and a visit from Father Christmas himself! Wellingborough Town Council will also be there to ask you what you want.

The Victoria Centre has been serving all communities in Wellingborough since 1979. It has welcomed and supported everyone from different countries and continues to be Wellingborough’s multicultural meeting place. They provide services for new arrivals and friendship for all.

Their Warm Room on Tuesdays gives people from the Victoria ward of Wellingborough the opportunity to shelter from the cold and socialise with other residents, play board games, and enjoy a free meal like soup, sandwiches, baked potatoes and beans on toast. It is available on Tuesdays from 10am until 4pm, and will run for 14 consecutive weeks until February 28, and they’ll be having these on Saturdays in January too!

Watch the video to see Kevin, Centre Manager, tell you all about the centre, what’s on and all about today’s Christmas Party. Join them for lots of festive fun this afternoon 2:00-5:00. It’s free, they look forward to welcoming you!

Swap Shop at Animals in Need Open Day!

Join us on Sunday, 11th September, 12-4 at Animals In Need Northamptonshire, Little Irchester, for their Summer Open Day. We will be there with lot’s of great second hand items, all for swaps or donations…

There will be loads of great stalls, including vegan food and a house plant stall too, all in aid of quite possibly the best charity in the county! Every penny raised will go to looking after the animals.

Do join us for great swaps, food and bargains, see you there!