Erewash Sound has named two local charities who will also benefit from more than 50 hours of sponsored broadcasting by radio station presenter Richard Dawson.
The Friday night Party Classics and Sunday Breakfast Show host begins his mammoth period on-air live from The Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton at 8am on Sunday 25th February and does not come off the airwaves until 12noon on Tuesday 27th.
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As well as raising money for the radio station, which is a non-profit making social enterprise, two local charities have been named who will also benefit from monies raised.
The first of the two other organisations is Everyone Eats, led by Kirk Hallam Reverend Christine French, which operates a food bank in the Ilkeston area where the food parcels are delivered to people's homes, plus it has a community Christmas Day meal and a Summer event combining live music and food. Food poverty and social isolation have a huge impact on our community and affects people of all ages. By bringing people together in a variety of ways, the aim of Everyone Eats is to reduce loneliness and increase food knowledge for better health & well being for everyone.
Hope Long Eaton is the second organisation that will receive a proportion of all monies raised.
The Petersham Breakfast cafe continues to thrive with over 40 visitors each week, supported by a dozen volunteers who help out, many of which started as guests but have since moved on to support the enterprise. Many of those volunteers say it has changed their lives.
Anna & Michael met there not long after they started 5 years ago and this year celebrate their third wedding anniversary. They are still the first ones there on a Monday morning to set up. Others started off by volunteering and have now gone on to paid employment. Hope Long Eaton also collect surplus and past best before food from various supermarkets and give this food away at projects they work with or through their own outlets - food which would have otherwise gone to landfill. Flowers are also used that would otherwise have been thrown away, subsequently brightening up local homes. A common quote is "I can't remember the last time anyone gave me flowers".
Hope Long Eaton also currently run a parent and toddler group at the Petersham hall and are looking to start some free cooking classes and also a youth cafe. These will be staffed mainly by volunteers who again started off by coming to volunteer at one of the projects and are enjoying it so much they now want to give back.
A bike project also looks to help get people out and about with a small team of volunteers who help out on an ad hoc basis to help restore and refurbish bikes. These sessions offer a great sense of achievement in seeing a bike saved from the scrapman. The bikes are then sold at affordable prices and so help people to get out on bikes again. The profits from this go to support other initiatives and also help pay for the rent at storage units.
Led cycle rides are held over the Spring and Summer visiting some of the Erewash Countryside, whilst the Manna foodbox project regularly sees the supply of around 70-80 families per week with affordable food sourced form food distributer Fareshare, again, only made possible through the work of volunteers who help sort the food and pack the boxes. Again, many of the volunteers are people who initially came along to collect a foodbox but have since gone on to enjoy volunteering together and now form a beneficial social circle.
Since the project started 5 years ago, the importance of getting people out and about and trying something new has been one of the most satisfying outcomes as those involved see lives transformed and attitudes changed