July 2024

16 Buckden Roundabout July 2024 Village News Bookings We have recently had a wedding reception, a christening and a 25 th wedding anniversary party in the main Hall. This month we have the NHS Blood Donor session in on Friday 12 th July, a family party and several kid ’ s parties as well as all our lovely regular hirers. Buckfest Is taking place on the playing field on Saturday 27 th July so please note we won ’ t be taking any bookings on that week- end. Fire exit paint job The wooden fire exits around the Hall have been given a lovely paint job and look much smarter. The library fire exit door is waiting to be replaced and will be painted once fitted. Buckden Village Hall Trust is a charity (CIO) We are amazingly lucky to have such a fantastic facility here. We have a main Hall and three meeting rooms, and also space for a social club, a library and a preschool. What many residents may not appreciate is that we are not run by the parish council. Every penny the Trust earns from hirers and tenants goes straight back into the business. It costs around £6k each month to cover the basics to allow us to simply to open the doors so applying for grants for improve- ments is a regular occurrence! The Trustees bring their experience to help to keep this amazing facility going. If anyone would like to join the Trust, or even simply volunteer to help with maintenance of the building or Valley area, or even help with grant applica- tions it would be much appreciated. Please let me know. My details are at the end of this article. You can even help the Trust simply by shopping online as easyfundraising will donate money to us … How all of you can help Buckden Village Hall when buying online It costs a lot of money to maintain the Hall and of course right now with the utility prices being astronomical, it ’ s costing even more. There are two ways in which everyone can help to raise money for the Trust while simply shopping online and it doesn ’ t cost a penny! 1. Go to www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/ buckdenvillagehall 2. Sign up for free 3. Get shopping! It doesn ’ t cost you anything more the online shops make the donations and are collected by easy- fundraising and automatically sent to us! There are no catches or hidden charges, and Buckden Vil- lage Hall Trust will be extremely grateful for your donations, especially at this challenging time. Antisocial behaviour around the Hall/Valley area As always if anyone sees any antisocial behaviour/vandalism taking place around the Hall or Valley area please contact the police straight away on 101 or online at www.cambs.police.uk Both the Hall and the Village Club have CCTV cameras all around the area. Please report any damage to the Hall Manager on ad- min@buckdenvillagehall.co.uk Jo Harvey, Hall Manager Email: admin@buckdenvillagehall.co.uk Tel: 01480 811101 Please call or email to arrange any appointments Office hours: 9am – 2pm Burberry Road, Buckden, Cambridgeshire, PE19 5UY Tel: 01480 811101 www. buckdenvillagehall.co.uk email: admin@buckdenvillagehall.co.uk W.I. On Tuesday, June 4th, we were very fortu- nate to have a visit from Jane Kennedy who gave us a most interesting talk on British Sign Language. Signing has been around since the 18th century but until quite recently people were discouraged from using it, the preference being for lip reading and finger signing. It wasn ’ t until 2003 that BSL was finally recognised as an official minority language in the UK. Jane began her career in banking before becoming a District Nurse and it was whilst doing her rounds at hostels in Pap- worth that she became interested and involved with sign lan- guage. She built up a rapport with deaf people living in the hostels but when people were moved into flats as a result of the hostels closing down it became apparent to her how isolat- ed they ’ d become. As a consequence of this her awareness of disabilities grew and Jane began teaching sign language at Ad- denbrookes. Twenty four years later and Jane is still working at the hospital providing workshops for staff. It is very hard for us to imagine how difficult and frustrating it must be for a non - verbal person to communicate how they are feeling or where a pain is located and how severe it might be but with Jane ’ s work with hospital staff things should be a great deal easier. During the evening we had a go, with much hilarity, at signing our names and “ singing ” a couple of songs using signs. We all came away having enjoyed a fun evening and with a much greater understanding of the difficulties faced by those with a hearing impairment. Our next meeting will be on July 2nd when we hope to have a visit by some Ukrainian ladies. Visitors are always very welcome to attend and for further in- formation please contact Emma Spencer - 07960018412 or Gill Baker - 079052114336