We are almost at 6 months since our launch event in September 2023 and we thought it would be an opportune time to reflect on what an amazing first few months it has been for all of us.
The launch meeting was held at the fabulous Arnage at the Motorist and was attended by 70 local business, community and education groups. We were also proud to see our local MP, Keir Mather take the time to attend along with Keane Duncan who is the conservative candidate for the mayor of North Yorkshire. Introducing them to each other was one of my personal highlights and it was truly inspiring to see two young (both well under 30) people willing to put aside their personal politics to try and improve things for our local area. Even better was watching Keir doing his inaugural speech in the Houses of Parliament when he spoke directly about We are Sherburn to the watching audience – goosebumps moment for all of us!
Since then we have gone on to have events at the Old Girls School, Sherburn White Rose Football Club, Hazlewood Castle, and Sherburn Gymnastics club. We have also had a variety of speakers from Keir Mather (MP), to local charities and businesses and have even had great fun playing on the equipment at the gymnastics club!
Most importantly the events have brought together so many lovely people from tiny businesses to international ones and from local sports and community groups to our local schools and Multi Academy Trust. Seeing the conversations, connections and collaborations being made has been truly worth all the hard work that the board of We are Sherburn have put into creating this organisation and to its continuing success.
In addition to the monthly events we have supported Sherburn High School with their mock interviews – managing to bring together so many new businesses to the school to help. It is fabulous to see how willing businesses are to help and support our young people and we are working hard with the schools to try and coordinate much more of this into the future.
One of our proudest moments was supporting Elmet Lions with their annual Santa Sleigh appeal – we managed to help them find sponsorship from local businesses so that every day the sleigh was sponsored by a different business or organisation as it visited local residents during December, raising over £6000 for charity.
Finally, we have recently coordinated a meeting of almost 40 people who all have a passion to try and improve the sporting and leisure facilities for the town of Sherburn. As a group this is going to be taken forward to work with our Town Council and County Council to see what can be achieved with all parties working together for a combined goal. Watch this space!
It has been an amazing few months and we now have 90 members of We are Sherburn who are benefiting from the events, the publicity on the website www.sherburninelmet.co.uk, our social media channels and of course the fabulous Resident magazine. We have so much planned for the next few months including our events at, amongst other places, Sherburn Aero club and GXO plus some fabulous speakers lined up. We also have an evening social event planned for August and a showcase event in September so the next 6 months look as exciting as the first 6 have been.
Learn more about how you can join in the fun at www.wearesherburn.co.uk – don’t miss out on the opportunity to be part of our mission to connect people together to put Sherburn on the map!
