Local Chimney Sweep provides lifeline this Christmas for local 400 struggling families

The Community Christmas Hamper Fund needs your help to provide a lifeline this Christmas for 400 struggling families.

The Community Christmas Hamper Fund started off in 2020, when a local Chimney Sweep, Tobias Kennedy Matthews, decided to help families in North Devon and Torridge struggling through the pandemic by fundraising to provide a lifeline at Christmas. The family would receive everything needed to make Christmas possible. The hampers included Christmas dinner complete with the trimmings, sweets, treats, crackers, stocking fillers and family games. In this first year of 2020 115 families received a Christmas hamper ensuring they had the Christmas they deserved.

Last year £7000 was raised, enough to provide a Christmas hamper for 250 families. Sadly Tobias had to turn away 400 applicants. This year, with the soaring cost of living, it is expected many more families will be in need of extra support to be able to make Christmas possible. ‘It is going to be more important than ever to try and be there for families in our communities here in North Devon and Torridge’ says Tobias.

This year Tobias has been awarded both the Mayor of Great Torrington’s good citizen award and The Voice radio’s Local Hero Fundraiser of the Year awards. ‘It’s made me realise how needed and appreciated this help is to so many’.

With a target to help 400 families this Christmas Tobias has been fundraising by cycling 400km with good friends Rob and Kane at the start of October. He is going sober for a month during busiest period of working as a Chimney Sweep from October 17th to November 16th. ‘I enjoy nothing more getting home from a stressful day to a lovely glass of wine!’ So far the Community Christmas Hamper Fund has raised £7000, with Christmas just around the corner, The Community Christmas Hamper Fund needs to raise an additional £3000 to be able to provide hampers for 400 families.

Donations have been coming in from individuals and local businesses such as Whitfield Tattoos running fundraising activity. In the past some supermarkets have been able to donate food items. Tarka Self Storage are providing a premises for free to store all of the goods and space to prepare the hampers.

If you are able help, please donate at www.gofundme.com/christmashamperfund22

If you own a local business and might be able to help us in any way, please get in touch. - Businesses that make sponsorship contributions will be publicly thanked at the beginning of the new year.

If you are struggling or know someone who may need help this Christmas 

please join our Facebook group TKM Community Fundraising 

or apply via the following link https://tinyurl.com/ChristmasHampers22

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If you are able help, please donate at www.gofundme.com/christmashamperfund22

Contact Tobias on 07800544315 

Email: tkmchimneysweep@hotmail.co.uk

Gofundme Christmas Hamper Fund 22

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Event full Christmas calendar with Devon author, Liz Shakespeare

For those wanting to solve those difficult Christmas present problems, one North Devon author might have the answer!

Liz Shakespeare, who specialises in breathing life into true stories from Devon’s past, will be attending a number of events this Christmas to sign copies of her books and to talk to members of the public.

Liz said, ‘Many people like reading books which have local settings, especially when they are based on true stories. A signed book makes an ideal present.’

She has written six books set in Devon, bringing to life the stories she finds in old newspapers, on gravestones and in parish records. Liz has a long Devon ancestry which she feels has given her a good understanding of the county and its people. Her most recent book The Song of the Skylark tells the true story of a young girl who was sent out as a parish apprentice to work on a remote Devon farm.

‘I am currently working on my seventh book which will be set in Torrington,’ Liz said. ‘Each book takes around three years to research and write, I am making good progress with my latest one but it will be at least a year before it is ready to be published.’

Liz will be signing copies of all six of her books at the following events:

• Christmas Market at Affinity, Devon on Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th November;

• The Hospice Christmas Fair, Durrant Hotel on Thursday 17th November

• Great Torrington Christmas Fayre (Town Hall) on Saturday 19th November

• Connect and Create Winter Fest, Barnstaple Pannier Market on Sunday 20th November

• Kingsley School Christmas Fair, Bideford on Saturday 26th November

• Butchers' Hall Christmas Market, Tavistock on Friday 2nd December

• Appledore Food and Craft Market on Saturday 3rd December

• South Molton Fatstock Show on Sunday 4th December;

• The Big Sheep Christmas Market on Saturdays 10th December and 17th December

• Hartland Farmers' evening Christmas Market, 5-10pm on Thursday 22nd December.

Liz’s books are also available from good bookshops and with free postage from www.lizshakespeare.co.uk

 

 Devon author, Liz Shakespeare at the Mid-Devon Show 2019.

 Liz’s books can also be ordered post-free from her website

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Want to make your life a little ‘wilder’? Charity can show you how

A leading local charity is launching a series of free on-line talks aimed at getting people, community groups, schools and businesses across Devon to turn their gardens and green spaces into havens for wildlife.

The talks are the idea of Devon Wildlife Trust’s Wilder Communities team – which exists to help inspire and support people from neighbourhoods, towns and villages in Devon to make where they live greener, wilder and richer in nature. 

The series of six free on-line talks begins in early November and then take place once a month into spring 2023. Together they cover a range of key practical topics which include: going without pesticides, ‘wilding’ school grounds, wildlife gardening, raising funds for community wildlife projects, and boosting local nature in churchyards.

Katie Wilkinson, who is Devon Wildlife Trust’s Project Lead for Wilder Communities, says:

‘’Our aim with these talks is to inspire people to take action for nature on their doorstep and to help people make their local area greener and richer in wildlife.

We hope they will be informative and useful for those that are already taking action and for those that are just starting out. Saving and nurturing our local wildlife can be achieved through a joint effort; together, we can create wilder communities across Devon.’’

The seminar series starts on Wednesday 9 November at 7pm when Nick Mole of Pesticide Action Network will be giving tips and advice on gardening without pesticides and herbicides.

This is followed on Wednesday 7 December at 7pm with ‘Top tips for funding your community project’ given by grants and major giving expert, Amanda Strowger.

Places for each of the on-line talks in the series is free, but people must register for them via the ‘What’s on’ pages of the Devon Wildlife Trust website www.devonwildlifetrust.org. There people can also find full details about the topics, dates and times of all the talks in the series, plus dozens of others nature-focussed events run by the charity.

Katie Wilkinson of Wilder Communities, says:

“We hope people will join us at these events – whether it’s for one or two talks or all six. We’ve deliberately based them around the ‘hot topics’ that have come up time and again from the communities we’ve been in touch with. Providing free on-line talks allows us to reach a wide and diverse audience which is vital if we’re to help communities achieve their vision for wilder, nature rich spaces where they live, work and learn.

Want to make your life a little ‘wilder’?  Photo credit Penny Dixie

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For more on the work of Wilder Communities visit www.devonwildlifetrust.org/wilder-communities

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Devon Wildlife Trust is the county’s leading environmental charity, with more than 37,000 members. The charity manages 60 nature reserves across Devon, including a range of beautiful landscapes such as woodlands, meadows, wetlands and heaths. Devon Wildlife Trust relies on charitable donations, grants and the generous support of its members and the general public to raise more than £5million every year. Money raised is spent maintaining our work for wildlife conservation and education in Devon, for present and future generations. More at www.devonwildlifetrust.org