By Penny Thompson, Community Organiser
I have recently begun to more activly engage with East Herringthorpe Social Club. The club is a not-for-profit organisation that has been running for over 20 years. I arranged a meeting with the events committee and Gary Linney, Steward of the club as they would like to engage more with the local community and put activities and events on for all ages that people would like to attend. I discussed and supported the group in putting together a strategy for events from November 2019 – March 2020.
Listening’s in the area showed that most families live on low to average incomes and they often cannot afford to attend events or activities within the Rotherham area due to travel issues and costs.
I supported the local Bonfire party that had over 174 attendees with their risk assessments, registers and compiling photographic evidence. I encouraged the committee that this is the type of evidence that would need to be collected to show that events and activites are being put on and meeting the needs of the local community. As a community organiser I supported the event with a small amount of funding with just £46, which allowed me to make 180 chocolate apples for families attending the event. For the bonfire party the club had secured a sponsor for the event who donated in some fireworks, as well as the club purchasing over £800 worth of fireworks themselves. On the night there were burgers and hotdogs availablefor those attending. We will also be supporting the committee in the near future by offering food hygiene training.
East Herringthorpe has now agreed to open the function room free of charge for the East Herringthorpe Heritage display, which will hopefully allow local people to come and share their own stories of living the East Herringthorpe area past and present. They have also offered the room free of charge to set up a youth club in the area as it was commonly agreed that there are no events for young people in the area.
