The
2019 Charities
This year the two charities the
beer festival committee have chosen to support are Halifax and Calder
Valley MS Group and Alzheimer’s Society Calderdale. Both are based
in the district and established charities supporting our local community.
Halifax
and Calder Valley MS Group
The Halifax and Calder Valley MS Society
is a local group and all money raised supports people in the Calderdale
area, being those w-ho have MS, their carers and their families. They
run two regular social events which are both well attended. MS can be
very isolating, and people
appreciate the option to get together with likeminded people.
They also run an Adapted Pilates class and have recently started another
group to support people who care for those with MS. The Halifax and
Calder Valley group have an advice partnership set up with Fightback4Justice,
giving their members help and support with benefit applications. They
also offer small grants to help anyone with MS purchase anything which
may help them live better, including mobility scooters, powered wheelchairs,
disability adaptations and much much more.
Alzheimer’s
Society Calderdale
Alzheimer's Society is the
only UK charity that campaigns for change, funds research to find a
cure and supports people living with dementia today. Dementia is the
UK's biggest killer. Someone develops it every three minutes and there's
currently no cure.
Alzheimer's Society is facing
dementia head on and are leading the way in support, society and research.
As the largest and most influential dementia charity in the UK, Alzheimer's
Society are calling on everyone to unite. Working together they know
they will achieve their vision - a world without dementia.
The
2018 Charities
Yorkshire
Children’s Trust
Yorkshire Children’s Trust, based in Elland was founded by two
sets of parents after their daughters were diagnosed with leukaemia.
Since 2011 the charity has set out to help children and their families
cope with the emotional and financial strain of many life changing illnesses,
something the charity's founders understand after dealing with cancer.
Despite its far reaching work with local parents, support workers and
medical professionals the Trust receives no lottery, NHS or central
government funding. It relies 100% on donations to fund its essential
work in the community.
Donations, among other things, help pay for medical equipment such as
wheelchairs, car seats, or special beds, home modifications, such as
wheelchair ramps, hospital travel, as a child may be having its treatment
far from home, breaks for affected families, welfare and debt advice.
Turning Point Counselling Service.
Based
in Brighouse the Turning Point Counselling Service offers individual
counselling to anyone over the age of 14. While it is a Christian based
charity it provides an inclusive service open to all regardless of faith,
culture, race, gender, disabilities or sexuality.
It offers opportunities for counselling to the local community and beyond
to anyone who may not be able to access longer term therapeutic counselling
elsewhere.
It offers a safe space that is confidential and non-judgemental. It
says its trained and experienced counsellors bring understanding and
compassion to the counselling process and works with clients to explore
the problems they may be experiencing.
The
2017 Beer Festival
Organisers of this year’s festival have agreed to support Bloodwise,
which is the UK’s specialist blood cancer charity, which helps
makes people’s lives better and helps stop people getting cancer
in the first place and the Neonatal Unit at Calderdale Hospital.
Bloodwise says it researches, helps and campaigns, shares learning,
and raises money, adding “we have changed the world for people
with leukaemia, lymphoma, myeloma, and other blood disorders.”
Recently St John’s pantomime committee raised £1,000 for
Bloodwise after one of its long standing members received treatment
at St James’s Hospital, Leeds, for blood cancer.
The Neonatal Unit provides care for pre-term and sick new born babies
of Calderdale and Kirklees. The unit has level two status which means
it can deliver intensive, high dependency and specialist care for babies
born at 27 weeks gestation and above. It has24 cots and of these three
are for intensive care, three for high dependency and 18 for specialist
care.
The organising committee’s chairman, Roger Ellis, says he is hopeful
that this year’s event will be just as successful as the previous
years and he put its success down to a combination of hard work by a
dedicated team of volunteers and the wonderful support of the church
community.
“They have volunteered to help by serving behind the bar, helping
in the kitchen and doing a host of other tasks. We have also received
wonderful support from the business community and the festival sponsors
and we really do appreciate their backing,” said Roger.
He says the feed back they had received in previous years indicated
it was a very friendly event, that people were made very welcome and
that it was a very well run festival with a good choice of top quality
beers and ciders.
“I would urge people to come along, enjoy themselves, sample some
first class beers and ciders and support some very worthy charities”
added Roger.
He said they had been highly delighted with the response and support
the previous festivals had received from both the sponsors and public
and they were now planning to make this latest festival just as successful
and enjoyable.
A
Presentation Evening - November 2017
A
couple of hard working charities and a local church were raising their
glasses this week to toast the success of the recent highly successful
Rastrick Beer Festival.
The sixth festival, held in the community hall at St John’s Church,
Rastrick, at the end of September attracted hundreds of real ale fans
from across West Yorkshire and further afield.
Now the delighted organisers have announced the two day event raised
£6,800, which prompted Roger Ellis, chairman of the organising
committee, to say he thought it was one of the best year’s ever.
The committee recently announced that it had agreed that £5,250
would go to church funds and £800 each would go to this year’s
chosen charities, Ravenscliffe@Springhall and Calderdale and Huddersfield
Children’s Diabetic Fund.
They each received their cheques at a special presentation evening held
at St John’s, when Roger described the atmosphere at this year’s
festival as “magic.”
Mr Martin Moorman, head at Ravenscliffe, received the cheque on behalf
of the school from Roger, who then handed over the cheque for the Diabetic
Fund to paediatric diabetic nurse, Amanda Grayson. Alan Hoggard, Reader
at St John’s received the cheque on behalf of the church.
Afterwards Roger said the success of this year’s festival had
been due to a lot of hard work by members of the committee, the church
community, businesses and the festival sponsors.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your
hard work, commitment and generous support.”
After receiving his cheque, Mr Moorman said: “I would like to
say a massive thank you for supporting our school. Your money will be
well spent I can promise you and it will help make our dream come true.”
On behalf of the Children’s Diabetic Fund, Amanda Grayson said:
“I know how difficult it is to raise £800 and I know personally
how difficult it is to make that amount, so I would like to say a huge
thank you to everyone involved with the festival for this cheque.”
Alan Hoggard also thanked the festival committee for its donation adding
that many people had worked very hard to make the event a success. “We
have also been inspired by what we have heard tonight,” he said.
Ravenscliffe High School and Sports College is Calderdale’s only
secondary special school currently providing education for 147 students
aged 11-19. It caters for a wide range of special educational needs,
including moderate, severe and complex learning difficulties.
With the help of a huge community fund raising drive, launched in 2014,
it has now secured the £2,700,000 required to construct a new
centre one mile from the current site. It is now seeking the remaining
£350,000 to equip it.
The children’s diabetic team offer nursing care, support and advice
to children and young people who have been diagnosed with diabetes.
Each year they take a group of 28 youngsters to the Lake District for
an activity weekend. This requires a team of 12 volunteers from the
team, consultants, and nurses from other areas of the NHS Trust.
The outing costs over £6,000 every year and is funded solely by
charitable donations. The money donated by the festival will go towards
the trip.
Photo
one: Roger Ellis, Martin Moorman (Ravenscliffe College) and Hilary McCarthy.Photo
two :Roger Ellis, Jean Hayman and Amanda Grayson (Children's Diabetics)
and Hilary McCarthy.Photo three: Roger Ellis, Alan Hoggard (Lay Reader
- St John the Divine) and Hilary McCarthy.
The
Charities that are supported by this year’s Beer Festival - 2016.
Ravenscliffe@Springhall
Ravenscliffe High School and Sports College is Calderdale’s only
secondary special school, currently providing education for 147 students
aged 11 to 19. It caters for a wide range of special educational needs,
including moderate, severe, and complex learning difficulties.
Ravenscliffe@Springhall is the culmination of a decade of careful planning
and thought in response to a growing school population and increasing
capacity issues. Government guidelines indicate the existing building
is fit to accommodate a maximum of 69 students. In September 2015 its
student population reached a record high of 147. Future numbers are
expected to increase to 167.
Ravenscliffe with the help of a huge community fund raising drive launched
in January 2014 has now secured the £2,700,000 required to construct
a new centre, one mile from the current site, but it does not factor
in equipping it to the highest possible standards and Ravenscliffe is
now seeking the remaining £350,000 to equip it.
Calderdale and Hudderfield Children’s Diabetic Fund
The Children's Diabetes Team offer nursing care, support and advice
to children and young people who have been diagnosed with Diabetes.
The Children’s diabetes team holds clinics in both Calderdale
Royal Hospital and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.
Each year they take a group of 28 young people between ages 9 1/2 and
16 to the Lake District for an activity weekend. This requires a team
of 12 volunteers from the diabetes team, consultants and nurses from
other areas of the NHS Trust. The trip costs over £6,000 every
year and is funded solely by charitable donations. For families this
is the only weekend in the year when they don't need to get up at 2am
to test the children's blood glucose levels, the volunteers do that
as well.
October
2015
Cheers!
the delighted organisers of the fifth Rastrick Beer Festival were able
to raise their glasses to toast the success of their latest event.
The festival was staged In the community hall at St John’s Church,
Rastrick, and the previous festivals have raised thousands of pounds
for both the church and local charities. The event has also attracted
visitors from all parts of Calderdale and Kirklees, others had travelled
over the Pennines from Lancashire and this year there was even some
visitors who had made the 3,700 mile journey from Canada.
At the end of this fifth festival organisers were unable to say just
how much it had raised, because with some monies still to come in and
some bills still outstanding they they were not yet in a position to
give a final figure.
But, they say, once all the monies are in and all the various costs
covered they will make an announcement at a special presentation evening
when cheques will be handed over to chosen charities and the church.
Last year the two day event raised just short of £7,000. From
that £4,500 went to St John’s with a recommendation that
£1,000 should go towards the improvements to the community hall
kitchens. In addition the two charities the beer festival committee
had chosen to support , The Yorkshire Air Ambulance and the Whiteknights
Emergency Voluntary Service, a service which uses motorbikes to transport
blood and other urgent samples to hospitals and hospices across North
and West Yorkshire, were each given a welcome £800 cash injection.
The committee also made a £250 donation to the Az2B Theatre Company
to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s Disease.
This year’s popular event, also coincided with the centenary celebrations
currently under way at St John’s.
The organisers had decided that the charities to benefit from this year’s
festival were Parkinson’s UK (support workers) and Working Wonders,
an independent charity which provides support for young people and employers
to create sustainable apprenticeships in Calderdale.
Afterwards, while reflecting on the two day event, a delighted Roger
Ellis, chairman of the organising committee, described the latest festival
as another fine success, adding that he wanted to say a big thank-you
to the hard working and friendly team who had done the organising and
planning leading up to the event. Roger said they had done a first class
job.
He also thanked local businesses, the local breweries, and the church
community for their wonderful support and sponsorship, without which
no charity would have benefited, he said. Roger added it had been very
much appreciated.
“We have had a wonderful, friendly atmosphere and because of the
pleasantly warm weather visitors also made full use of the garden area
outside the community hall, and anyone who wanted a quiet moment for
reflection they would have been able to find it in the church, which
had been left open throughout the event,” he said.
Roger said he had personally received some very positive feed back from
visitors about the quality of the beers and ciders and the festival’s
very friendly atmosphere. He had received some excellent feedback which
was very pleasing.
Visitors had also been asked to include comments on a questionnaire
about the festival, the quality of its beers and ciders, and would they
come again. Nearly all had described the beers and ciders as excellent
, others had thought it was great value for money. Another had even
pointed out that his child had enjoyed riding his bike round the garden
area and another thought the festival was very good value for money.
A vast majority had also said they would return.
Visitors were also asked to vote for their favourite beer. When the
votes were counted at the end, in first place was Berry Blond, brewed
by Nook Brewhouse , Holmfirth, described in the tasting notes as a rich
biscuit pale malt base balanced with citrusy cascade hops and sweet
and tangy raspberry flavours.
June
2015
The organising committee
has agreed that this year the festival will support two charities :
the local branches of Parkinsons UK and Calderdale's Working Wonders
- Supporting young people into work and apprenticeships.
November
2014
The
outstanding success of the popular Rastrick Beer Festivals has helped
give an added cash boost, running into thousands of pounds, to a local
church and various charities.
The fourth festival, held at the end of September in the community hall
at St John’s Church, Rastrick, attracted hundreds of real ale
fans from across West Yorkshire and further afield.
Afterwards delighted organisers announced the two day event had raised
just short of £7,000. From that £4,500 went to St John’s
with a recommendation that £1,000 should go towards the improvements
to the community hall kitchens.
In addition the two charities the beer festival committee had chosen
to support this year, The Yorkshire Air Ambulance and the Whiteknights
Emergency Voluntary Service which uses motorbikes to transport blood
and other samples to hospitals and hospices across north and West Yorkshire,
were each given a welcome £800 cash injection.
Mike and Elaine Moores from the Yorkshire Air
Ambulance receiving their cheque from Roger Ellis.
Vic Siswick, founder of Whiteknights along with
Glyn Venables the Whiteknights North Yorkshire manager, (right) with
Eric Ogden, from the beer festival committee,
who put forward the organisation to the committee for a donation.
They each received their cheques at a special presentation evening held
in the community hall, when they delighted chair of the festival’s
organising committee, Roger Ellis, told the gathering that as a result
of the four festivals they had given nearly £7,000 to charities
and nearly £16,000 to the church.
Earlier the committee had also handed over a cheque for £250 to
a theatre company to help with the cost of taking part in an international
convention in India to promote awareness of Alzheimer’s disease.
Roger said: “We are extremely proud of what we have achieved over
that short period of time. A lot of hard work and dedication has gone
into making the festivals a success but when you can see what we have
achieved then I can honesty say it has all been worthwhile.”
He added : “I am very fortunate in the fact that I chair a very
hard working committee who have worked extremely hard. But we were helped
by a team of over 70 people who also helped us over the two days in
order to make sure it was a success. There us no doubt it was a success
because over 600 people walked through that door and had a thoroughly
enjoyable time. They were made welcome and were fed and watered well.
It went like clockwork because of the dedication of these people and
the hard work of the committee. As I say it went like clockwork and
was very successful.”
The
Rev Marion Russell, vicar at John’s, with Roger Ellis and Hilary
McCarthy, festival committee treasurer,.
He said the money they had raised was going back into the community
to worthy local organisations and said he was very pleased to welcome
their representatives to the presentation.
Roger said that as well as the support from the church community they
had also received tremendous backing from the business community and
from the festivals sponsors.
“I would like to say a huge thank-you to them as well for their
wonderful support,” he said.
Mike and Elaine Moores, representatives of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance,
received their cheque on behalf of the service from Roger,
After explaining about the history and workings of the service, which
receives no government funding, and costs nearly £10,000 a day
to operate, they thanked the festival committee for its generosity.
Vic Siswick, founder of the Whiteknights, also set out how the organisation
was founded and explained how it transported blood, samples, records
and other urgent items at no extra cost to the NHS.
He said they were also very grateful to the committee for its very welcome
cheque.
Representatives
from the
committee, sponsors and charities.
The vicar of St John’s, the Rev Marion Russell, received the cheque
on behalf of the church and said shortly after arriving at St John’s
she could see the dedicated planning that was being out into the event.
“What has also struck me is that in our community there are people
motivated to reach out and do something for others. That’s what
God calls love,” she said, adding that those people were rolling
up their sleeves and doing something about it.
Marion said the festival was a delight and she wanted it to continue.
2014
The Charities that are
supported by this year’s Beer Festival.
The Yorkshire Air Ambulance
Yorkshire Air Ambulance is a dedicated helicopter emergency service
for the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It was introduced
on 1 April 2000, and currently operates two aircraft. The helicopters
provide a swift response time and access to isolated locations, such
as beaches, cliff-tops and moorland areas which are inaccessible by
road. The Yorkshire Air Ambulance Trust, a registered charity, maintains
the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. To keep providing this life saving service
the charity needs to raise £9990 per day to keep both of Yorkshire’s
Air Ambulances maintained and in the air. The generosity that they receive
is the life blood of the charity and without this generosity, they would
not be able to provide the service that we are so proud of.
The Whiteknights Emergency
Voluntary Service
The Whiteknights Emergency Voluntary Service (EVS) is a Blood Bike Charity
that provides a voluntary urgent courier service to the NHS, completely
free of charge.The charity is fully staffed by unpaid volunteers throughout
Yorkshire, who offer their time to provide the service.
The Whiteknights provide an urgent out of hours courier service.
They use fully marked motorbikes to transport:
· Blood
· Blood Products
· Urgent Samples
· Urgent Pharmacy Items
· Donor baby milk
· Case Notes
· Anything else needed urgently
It costs £20,000 per year to run the service. 100% of that comes
from donations! The service they provide is completely free to the NHS
and charity Hospices. This frees up the money that they would normally
spend on taxi fares, allowing them to spend it on healthcare instead.
2013
Delighted
organisers of the third Rastrick Beer Festival were raising their glasses
at the end of the latest event to toast a hat-trick of successes.
The third festival was staged on September 20 and 21 in the community
hall at St John’s Church, Rastrick and the two previous events
have raised hundreds of pounds for both the church and local charities.
At the end of the third one organisers were hoping it had raised more
money than last year, but with some monies still to come in and some
bills still outstanding they say they are not in a position just yet
to give a final figure.
But, they say, once all the monies are in and all the various costs
covered they will make an announcement at a special presentation evening
when cheques will be handed over to the chosen charities and the church.
Last year a cheque for £3,600 was handed over to St John’s
and £1,800 was shared between the three charities, who also benefited
from match funding, meaning the charities received £1,200 each.
The three charities to benefit last year were the Jayne Garforth Support
Centre at the Macmillan Unit at Calderdale Royal Hospital, the Calderdale
branch of the Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Forget Me Not Children’s
Hospice, Huddersfield.
The organisers have decided that the charities to benefit this year
are the Calder Valley Search and Rescue Service, The Alzheimer’s
Society (Calderdale Service) and the local Marie Curie Nursing Services.
Roger Ellis, chairman of the organising committee described this latest
festival as “an outstanding success,” adding that he would
like to say a big thank you to the hard working team who had done the
organising and planning leading up to the event. “They have done
a tremendous job,” he said.
He added: “I would also like to thank both local businesses and
the church community who have supported us and without whose support
no charity would have benefited. They have also helped to make the festival
the success it has become.”
He was delighted it had been another huge success and said it had been
very pleasing to see so many new faces as well as meeting plenty of
others who had enjoyed the two previous events.
“It means people are talking about it and sharing it with others.
That, I believe, is all down to the quality of the beers and ciders,
the good food we offer and the very friendly atmosphere,” said
Roger.
Some
of the support team.
Visitors had come from many parts of Calderdale and much further afield.
Two friends from Sheffield, Paul Willers and Craig Steel had arranged
to stay in bed and breakfast accommodation locally in order to visit
the festival on Saturday.
Paul explained they had been last year when they were working in the
area and were so impressed by the quality of beers and the friendly
welcome they decided to come again this year.
“We think it is a fantastic festival,” he said.
Other comments left on questionnaires visitors had been asked to complete,
included “A good festival, just like festivals used to be,”
and “keep up the good work, you raise money for excellent causes.”
Visitors were also asked to vote for their favourite beer and when the
votes were counted at the end there was a tie for first place between
Elland Brewery’s 1872 Porter, a rich, dark and complex porter
from an original 1872 recipe, which was crowned Supreme Champion of
Britain at the 2013 CAMRA festival and Skinner’s brewery Ginger
Tosser, a hoppy golden ale fused with Cornish honey with a hint of ginger.
2013
The
organisers have decided that the charities to benefit from this year's
event are the Calder Valley Search and Rescue Service, the Alzheimer's
Society (Calderdale Service) and the local Marie Curie Nursing Services.
2012
As
well as raising funds for St John's Church, the festival also plans
to donate money to three local charities.
They are The Halifax and Calder Valley branch of the Multiple Sclerosis
Society which consists of around 130 members, drawn from an area including
Halifax, Sowerby Bridge, Hebden Bridge, Todmorden, Elland and Brighouse.
It provides help and support to local people with multiple sclerosis,
their families and carers The MS Society, which is the UK's leading
MS charity has, since 1953, been providing information, support and
funding and fighting for change,
The second charity is the Jayne Garforth Support Centre, the Macmillan
Unit, Calderdale Royal Hospital. The centre offers support and advice
to anyone in Calderdale, Huddersfield and surrounding area who is affected
by cancer or other life limiting illnesses.
The service offers access to specialist cancer care nurses and trained
volunteers who may have had personal experience of cancer.
The Forget Me Not Children's Hospice is a charitable organisation making
the most of sometimes short, but always precious lives for people in
Huddersfield and West Yorkshire. The aim of the organisation is to provide
care and support for children with life limiting conditions. Those children
and their families will be from Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield areas.
It is currently raising funds to build a house for respite, emergency
and end of life care in Huddersfield. They need to raise £3million
to build the centre.
The
2011 Rastrick Beer Festival
was a great success financially and socially as it bought many people
together. Three charities have benefited from the fund raising - Brighouse
Rest Centre, Turning Point, a counselling service, and Together for
Looked- After Children (TLC).
Each charity received £325. The remainder of the income was given
to St John's Church.
The
cheques were presented by the Rev, Matthew Pollard.
Brighouse Rest Centre ------------------Turning Point -------------------------TLC
The newspaper report of the proceedings
from the Brighouse Echo
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