Food for thought

What a fantastic weekend! The weather was great and so many communities around the north made a fantastic effort to get people together.

Whether or not anyone is a Royalist, the Diamond Jubilee gave us the perfect excuse to get together and enjoy each others’ company. All sorts of festivities took place and no doubt you will see the evidence in photographs in other parts of this newspaper.

These things however, do not happen without a great deal of effort on the part of a great number of people.

Street parties, concerts, ceilidhs all need to be organised. The practicalities of everything from having enough bin bags, to the right sort of music, all need to be worked out as well as the logistics of trying to include as many people as possible.

Then after everyone else has gone home tired but happy, there are those who step in with smiles on their faces, to do the clearing up.

I think as well as celebrating a 60 year reign, we also celebrated vibrant communities that are vibrant because of the people within them who are willing to put themselves out for the sake of the place they live.

I think perhaps we are guilty of taking these people for granted when they need an enormous round of applause. Without such community minded individuals our lives would be so much the poorer. Our towns and villages would be less pleasurable places to live. These people should also make the rest of us think about what we can do to help enrich the lives of the community in which we live. We should also make the effort to continue to support them.

And of course volunteering carries its rewards. These may not be trumpeted, but working for the wider good of all offers a great deal of personal satisfaction that nothing else can give.

Why not try it and see for yourself?

In the meantime a big "THANK YOU" to everyone who did anything to make last weekend so special –

Susan Brown.

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