Can You Make a Difference in Your Community?

Join us in Chelmsford High Street for this year’s VOLFEST! Be it a day, a month or a lifetime commitment, whatever time and energy you can freely give has the potential to change someone’s life. Chelmsford CVS are thrilled to announce that on Thursday 8th June we will again be celebrating #VolunteersWeek by taking over Chelmsford High Street for VOLFEST 2023.

Over 30 local charities will be coming together to showcase their efforts and promote their services in a festival of all the good that can come of our community working together. Come and join us for a day of feel good activities, live music, food and fun!

Community is a work of heart and you’ll be able to see first-hand some of the wonderful ways in which charities and volunteers support our city and find out how you and your loved ones can access that help.

The last VOLFEST in 2022 was an incredible success; Lorraine Jarvis from the CVS said: “There was the most amazing incredible atmosphere in the High Street, people chatting to the stalls, to each other, and finding out how all the local organisations that showcasing could benefit them. Volunteering really is life-enhancing, it was an amazing day!”

Do come down on the 8th to find out more and help us celebrate all things community.

More information the event can be found here: chelmsfordcvs.org. uk/volfest.

Follow the event on Twitter by searching ‘@ChelmsfordCVS’ and using the hashtag #VOLFEST and #VolunteersWeek.

Introducing Doug Beasley - Chelmsford Community Radio

We continue our series on introducing our presenters.

Hello good people of Chelmsford! I’m Doug Beasley and I host the Alternative Hour every Monday 7-8pm on Chelmsford Community Radio.

I live in Moulsham and can regularly be found frequenting Central Park, Oaklands Park, The Orange Tree and several of Moulsham Street’s delights with my partner Claire.

I have long been a fan of radio, particularly when it involves communicating all manner of exciting things in music, particularly indie and alternative music - a genre which has been close to my heart since my teenage years.

My desire to try radio presenting came about in my late teens, and with its history as the birthplace of radio, Chelmsford was always going to a great place to make that become a reality! However my first opportunity to try it out actually came during my time at Sheffield University, when me and two good friends, Will and Jamie, took to the airwaves on the University’s student radio station Forge Radio. Such was our enthusiasm for getting on the airwaves that we requested as our first choice the Monday 9-10am slot. An hour when all students are very much fast asleep... The show was called Is Anyone Out There? and was a reflection of our true thoughts at the time! We did however manage around 50 shows and then as we started to clock up playbacks on Mixcloud (probably at a much more sociable hour) we felt like we’d made it! www.chelmsfordcommunityradio.com

So what is the Alternative Hour and why should you listen? Well, I’m now going it alone, but the concept is quite simple. I seek to share with you the very best in indie and alternative music each week. You can be sure of some classics (think Oasis, Stereophonics, Two Door Cinema Club, Bloc Party, Hot Chip, Arctic Monkeys and Foals to name but a few), generally all somewhere between 1995 and 2015, with a peak in the late naughties. There’s also plenty of recent hits (think Michael Kiwanuka, Sam Fender, Christine and the Queens and alt-j). Most importantly to me though, I use the show as a showcase of new and exciting indie and alternative music releases. Essentially I sniff out some great new music and share it across the city in exactly the way my teenage self wanted! If it sounds like your kind of thing, give me a listen every Monday from 7-8pm on Chelmsford Community Radio, or check out my past shows by searching ‘dougbeasley’ on the CCR mixcloud - www.mixcloud.com/chelmsfordcr.

How far away do you plan events in your diary? Are you spontaneaous or do you need advanced notice?

There is a lot of advanced planning involved when setting up craft events: you need to link up with village halls and/or hotels to make sure they can host your group at the date you would like. Other events such as craft shows dictate when they take place, so you have to make space in your diary for them.

In the last two years, Scrap-Circle has talen part in numerous craft shows, including Alexander Palace in London. I love exhibiting there because it is the ideal opportunity to meet crafters and chat with them over a free Make & Take. It is a fun day out with friends, being seduced by an array of crafts.

Other events recur on a regular basis, for instance, our monthly craft days at Highwood Village Hall near Chelmsford. As the name suggests, we meet once a month, usually the third or fourth Saturday and spend time together catching up with old friends and making new friends! The next ones are 20th May, 24th June, 19th August, 23rd September, 28th October, 25th November and 16th December. We are planning craft weekends at Highwood Village Hall (Saturday 9.30am to 11.30pm and Sunday 9am to 7pm) and dates are 10th - 11th February, 29th - 30th June, 28th - 29th Spetember and 14th - 15th December.

As far as our Craft Retreats are concerned, there are usually 3 or 4 every year (Friday 4pm to Sunday 4pm). The last two for this year are in October and December. The October retreat has always been very popular and it is now full. However there are a few spaces still available on the December retreat if you want to treat yourself to a pre-Christmas weekend away (8th - 10th December at Grafham Water Centre in Perry, Cambridgshire).

Our next big adventure is the Craft Cruises with Royal Caribbean. Have you ever thought of combining cruising with crafting? It is a wonderful idea; crafting all day long on sea days and in the afternoons on shore days. Crafting in the evening is available on request because there is so much entertainment to enjoy!

This year’s cruise is 4th - 13th August 2023 to Spain and Portugal from Southampton, and there are still a few places available. We hire the conference room to craft in, so we shall enjoy a lovely air-conditioned room overlooking the sea. You can still book in, but you need to hurry or else you will be missing out!

Next year’s is already planned out and we will be going to cruise to Alaska from Seattle, 22nd to 29th July 2024. Booking is already set up and you can spread the costs. Check all details on www.scrap-circle. co.uk.