Happy New Year from the Wrestlingworth Goodwill Fund!

3 things to update you on - Good News, Thank-Yous and Bad News, Help!

Starting with the Good News… As was reported in the last Village Link magazine, the Goodwill Fund has been able to restart the very popular “ambulance” service that provides free transport for residents of our 4 villages (Wrestlingworth, Cockayne Hatley, Eyeworth and Tadlow) to hospital or doctors’ appointments at local surgeries, clinics or hospitals. The service had to stop for obvious reasons during the Covid pandemic period and it’s taken a while to restart whilst we resolved queries from our insurance company. These are now all cleared and the service was relaunched just before Christmas. I’m delighted to report that Margaret Pantry is once again acting as central co-ordinator for this service (contact details in the ‘Handy Phone Numbers’ page at the back of this magazine), and that we have a panel of 8 volunteer drivers already in place. There is of course room for more volunteer drivers - fuel costs are reimbursed, so if you would like to join us, please do contact Geoffrey at info@wrestlingworthgoodwillfund.org.uk, or 07720 805620. Of course, the service is now there, so please do use it!

Next, the Thank-Yous. A big thank you to everyone we met whilst Goodwill was helping Santa deliver parcels to the pensioners of our villages and sweets to the children we met along the way. Santa was out in his sleigh on two weekends and we couldn’t have helped him without the assistance of Friends of Goodwill and Potton Guides who acted as his elves in delivering parcels and good cheer - a big thank you to them for their help. We must of course also thank Santa for taking time out of his very busy schedule to help Goodwill. Santa did seem to like the mince pies, mulled 33 wine, ginger beer and hot drinks that were very kindly provided by local residents in the villages. We will of course not be telling Mrs Claus just how much Santa liked the mince pies…. And a final thank you to those who made donations whilst we were visiting in the sleigh, and to those that sent cards, good wishes and donations to Goodwill as well. It goes without saying that Goodwill can’t operate as it does, helping residents of our villages, without donations from the public, and we very much thank you all for your generosity and support.

And finally, the Bad News, Help! Goodwill is, as I’m sure you know, a registered charity that provides Goodwill activities and support to residents of our four villages. These services have included: • The “Ambulance Service” mentioned above • Goodwill gifts to new people moving in to our villages or returning home from a hospital stay 34 • A Pensioners’ Tea Party • Santa Run with presents for Pensioners and Children • Resource awards for students aged 16+ going to college or university • Grants for people in need • Support to other local organisations including in 2023: Eyeworth Village Hall (curtains for the hall), Wrestlingworth Lower School (chrome books) and Wrestlingworth Memorial Hall (refreshments for the Christmas Fair) We principally fund this through: • Donations, both one-off and regular • Two very popular Quizzes • Summer Fete and Raffle And to do that we need people to help organise these events, decide on where support should be given, and with extra hands ‘on the day’ to run the different events. We are very lucky that there are a number of “Friends of Goodwill” that offer their help at our events, and we also have a small committee that meets about every 6 weeks. Unfortunately and this is where the Bad News and Help! bit comes in - a number of our committee members will be standing down at our forthcoming AGM and at the moment we have only 2 committee members for next year. Clearly we cannot run Goodwill, put on the events we do, or support our villages with just two people. We need more people to come forward as committee members and as Friends of Goodwill. It’s not a massive commitment of time but we do need people as we cannot continue Goodwill in anything like its current form with 2 people.

Please do contact Geoffrey on 07720 805620 or email info@wrestlingworthgoodwillfund.org.uk if you would like to know more about Goodwill. And please, if you can, come to the Goodwill AGM and step forward to support us. All help is gratefully received no matter how large or small. Our AGM will be held in Wrestlingworth Memorial Hall on Wednesday 21st February at 7:30pm.