The family meet and greet event on October 2nd was a huge success, with food, drink and music for local families.

Things are tough at the moment for people all over the country, and we know how important it is for people to feel like they have a strong community around them. That’s why Calder Community Cares hosted a family meet and greet event in Hebden Bridge on October 2nd for everybody in the local area, for a fun day out without any kind of financial worries.

The event included free food, drink, music and entertainment, and was a great chance for families to socialise with their local community without the pressures of the cost-of-living crisis. The meet and greet was hosted in partnership with the local Ukrainian community, and we were excited to be able to celebrate Ukrainian culture as part of the event.

Janet Lymer, founder of Calder Community Cares said: “We cannot thank CMBC enough for allowing us the opportunity to develop our CCK shop and the sales of our pre-loved clothing made this occasion possible.

“We have big dreams for continuing to support not only the people of Ukraine, but all of our community during this awful Cost Of Living Crisis, and hope to be lucky enough to continue to continue with our wonderful shop.” 

We had two wonderful musical guests performing at the meet and greet. The first was Ukrainian singer Ulia Lord. Ulia has been writing songs since she was nine years old, and recently received the honour of being named a Merited Artist of Ukraine. The second guest was local band Free Sandwiches, who played a fantastic mix of folk songs from across Europe.

Janet added: “One of the women from Ukraine said this was the happiest day of the year for her and the happiest she’d been since she was forced to leave Ukraine and the feeling of warmth, kindness and compassion shown by Calderdale Community was overwhelming.”

As well as the wide range of community families, the volunteers of the CCK shop were all also invited as guests to share food, music and cherry vodka. Some of the shop volunteers left with tears in their eyes, and we hope to be able to run many more events like this in the future!