Mayor of Worcester

The Heart of Worcester College held their awards ceremony at the Cathedral last Friday.  This was an impressive event to celebrate the achievements of their students who had graduated with many varied qualifications.  I was able to see first-hand that the commitment of those receiving their certificates was a credit to the teaching staff of the College.

And from the Cathedral I walked over to Cripplegate Park to attend the unveiling of the metal Worcester Pear which forms the part of a heritage trail created by Planet Art.  Walking from there to the Bull Ring and various other locations in St John’s, anyone can watch out for the plaques denoting Roman finds and the butchery trade – as well as other historical connections to Worcester.

On Saturday afternoon I went to what was really a street party in York Place.  The residents there had for a number of years been attempting to have their pavements replaced.  The difficulty was that each house had a cellar making the work very difficult.  However, with a very determined residents association and with the help of a local councillor, they were able to celebrate the work having been done and the street looking much better.  Not often a Mayor opens a new pavement!

The next day brought with it the Tour of Britain Cycle event.  The weather held and by 11o’clock I had started the race and they were all off, en route to Pershore where they really started to race.  Great to see crowds of people out for the event enjoying themselves and seeing some famous faces.  Great for Worcester too with all these visitors to the City.

Then on Tuesday evening I went to Sixways arena where I handed out awards for young people who had taken part in the National Citizens Service.  I commented in a past column about how such a group had helped out at the Worcester Headway (charity’s) building.  This evening was to celebrate what all the groups in Worcestershire had achieved over the past few months.  Although it was their time that they were giving to the community they were really appreciative of the organisers who had given them the opportunity of taking part in various challenges that gave them some life and work skills.

Amongst various meetings held at the Guildhall this week I was able to visit Lichfield Cathedral where we joined the Mercian Regiment for the celebration of their tenth Anniversary. The senior officers present extolled the achievements of the regiment in that period at various locations around the globe.

On Sunday, despite the evening being rather damp, a number of people came to the High Street where together with Civil War re-enactors, we processed to the Vue Cinema to watch a film about the Battle of Worcester during the English Civil War.  The director Joe Gaffney made the film particularly for younger viewers, giving a short overview of the Battle and conditions at the time.

From there we marched on to the Commandery before moving on to Fort Royal Hill.  With drums ringing in our ears, we progressed to the top of the hill where the Rev. Canon Alvyn Pettersen gave a service to commemorate the lost lives on both sides.  A minute’s silence was held after the firing of muskets, after which the procession returned to the Commandery.

The following day Alison and I went to Kidderminster to an Awards Ceremony hosted by the Mayor there.  The winners of the Queens Award to Volunteers (equivalent to an MBE) were a group who have done so much to promote the awareness of and raise funds for prostate cancer.

Kidderminster and Worcestershire Prostate Cancer Support Group were granted the award for supporting those in the County suffering from the disease.  The group, which has been going for some 17 years, was given the award by the Vice Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire, Lady Morrison.

My first engagement of the week was an evening visit to the Barbourne Ex-Services Club where the organisers were bringing together ex-forces personnel from various groups from around the City.  There were those who were members of the Royal British Legion, others who took part in a Breakfast Club and those from the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment.  It’s hoped that this getting together will happen on a more regular basis, encourage new members and be another level of support for past service personnel.

The Bank Holiday weekend brought with it engagements at events contained within the Worcester Festival.  It started with great music put on by the English Symphony Orchestra (which is based in Worcester).  The played some very well known music from the Harry Potter and Toy Story films as well as Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf suite.  Narrated by Ben Humphries, some serious applauding let everyone know how much it was enjoyed.  The Swan Theatre hosted its Summer Fete on Sunday and as well as stalls with various ‘goodies,’ it launched its Pantomime Season too.  Actors and actresses in full costume headed over to the Police Station to visit its Open Day. Needless to say – they were jailed!

And on Monday the Festival closed with a fantastic Firework Display.  Lots of ‘oohs and ahhs’ showed just how much the spectacle was appreciated by everyone present who, it should be said donated very generously to those collecting for St. Richard’s Hospice . Lots of thanks to all those who arranged these terrific events.

Later in the week we visited The Hive where we were given a tour of the award winning archive and archaeology sections.  The housing of these archived documents is an impressive affair, with considerable safety precautions for their preservation in place.  This is yet another organisation that runs incredibly well with the help of local volunteers.

This week has provided a little more time for reflection regarding how I can continue to promote my theme of ‘Valuing Volunteers’.  Having listened to so many volunteers out there who do give up their time, generally with the idea of making the lives of others more bearable, it really does appear to be a two-way street.  While helping – be it for a charity, as school governor, a carer, or in whatever capacity – I keep being told that those who do so get a lot back, either through life experience or work skills.

I became aware of how important this facet of volunteering was when delivering awards at the University.  It was brought home to me that employers, while expecting potential employees to have the requisite qualifications, were also seeking young people who could be ambassadors for their companies.  They were looking for leadership and teamwork skills.  Those receiving awards could demonstrate how their volunteering work helped to equip them with these and other competencies.

This was again demonstrated later in the week, when I saw a number of volunteers outside the Guildhall raising money for the Headway charity.  They were selling cakes and keeping youngsters amused at a face painting event.  The amount they raised went towards buying materials to decorate various rooms at the Headway offices.

I was then able to see exactly what work they were doing at Headway and discovered that as well as painting and general indoor maintenance, one group had cleared a piece of ground that had been full of earth and rubbish to make an outside area available to clients at the charity.  The whole enterprise had taken a week and had been arranged by the National Citizen Service, which is open to 15- 17 year olds across England.  The programme builds skills for life – it’s one of the best routes I can recommend to help discover why volunteering is so worthwhile.