Exploring Poundworld
When one door closes, another one opens; but not in the St Albans! In recent times, St Peters Street has witnessed so many closures and few openings.
However, Tescos has moved into the old Woolworth premises and Poundworld has opened up where Tescos used to be.
Despite my past attitudes to the quality of Pound stores, I must admit that this new one is fab!
The shelves are adorned by all sorts from sweets, party gear, DIY bits and halloween decorations to walking sticks and stationary. And all just for £1. Great for filling the kids’ party bags and letting kids go wild on their pocket money! The garden gnomes have got to be the best buy!
A St Albans bookclub have decided to take their friendship one step further; actually it will be a few thousand steps further!This bookclub have not just formed a great bond, but have taken steps to help those around them. Recently they did a public performance of the Haka warrior dance, at a farewell party, for a New Zealand member of their club. Now, they are about to undertake a 25 mile circular challenge, climbing the three highest peaks of Yorkshire. They aim to complete this within a 12 hour period. And is this for the sake of their health? No!
Stephen Barbour, bookclub member and organiser of the challenge explains,”‘We are raising money for a charity that supports people with a relatively unknown condition. Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks the upper and lower motor neurons. Degeneration of the motor neurons leads to weakness and wasting of muscles, causing increasing loss of mobility to the limbs and difficulty with speech, swallowing and breathing. This is often a terminal disease affecting 2 people in 100,000.”
Stephen’s friend, Howard, is one of the unlucky two. Howard, a popular man in our St Albans community, is a terrific dad to three boys and husband to a supportive wife.
Stephen says “Life is just not fair, since his illness was diagnosed, he has continued to be very positive and do as much as he can with the boys and you will never hear him moan about his illness.”
Louise Coxon, communications manager at the Motor Neurone Disease Association, says:”We rely entirely on voluntary donations from the public to help support and care for people with MND and to fund ground-breaking research to find a cure for this cruel disease. We are committed to fighting MND and so we really value the passion and commitment of our supporters because every penny raised helps to make a real differance to the individuals and families affected by MND.”
The walk will take place on 4th September and the ‘boys’ would welcome your donations. Click on www.justgiving.com/Stephen-Barbour0 and follow instructions.
Information on MND is available on www.mndassociation.org
Just weeks after the celebration of their new Prayer Garden, the children of St John Fisher Catholic Primary school have enjoyed the opening of a new bike stand!
This flash new stand was officially opened on 25th June 2010. It takes up to 20 bikes and so far it has been very popular with a high bike occupancy!
As part of the Bike It scheme, the school will have ‘Wheelie Wednesdays’. Vitina Thwaites explains “Any child who cycles to school on a Wednesday is awarded a point. Points can then be exchanged for a range of Bike It prizes and children who earn the most points will be entered into a competition to win a T-Shirt and become part of the Bike It crew for the school.”
For the younger children who scooter to school, the staff are hoping to run competition to win a Bike It mascot.
The Bike It programme is a nationwide scheme and has been operating for 5 years. They state that children who cycle to school are more likely to be physically active than theirs peers and less likely to be obese or develop diabetes. Bike It also promotes road safety and helps reduce the numbers of cars on the road.
Blue skies and melodious childrens’ voices greeted Bishop Stack and the Ss Alban & Stephen parish priests as they celebrated the opening of the new Prayer Garden at St John Fisher Catholic Primary school.The mass coincided with their saint’s feast day on June 22nd. Pupils, teachers, parents and friends of the school were present to enjoy this special ’al fresco’ occasion.
The tranquil garden, with its circular stones symbolizing rosary beads, wooden seating and a 5 foot wooden cross surrounded by plants, is for the pupils to take time out to pray.
Mr McNerney, Head Teacher, said “Its going to offer a place to pause for quiet moments and space to pray, reflect and have quiet time with God.”
Bishop Stack echoed this, “In every school, there needs to be an oasis of peace, calm and (to quote poet TS Eliot) a still point of a turning world. Its important that this is at the heart of every school; visual, tangable and close to nature.”
Several pupils had enthusiastic comments to make about their prayer garden. ” I will go there to say prayers especially if I am worried about sick relatives. I will have a peaceful time with God.” said a year 4 pupil.
Bishop Stack presented four symbolic plants to the school; sage, lavender, rosemary and thyme. He spoke about their physical and spiritual effects.The pupils presented the bishop with a plaque and CD of their wonderful choir, ‘ to enjoy on his M25 journeys!’
The school choir completed the mass with their own song which includes the words ‘We are children of St John Fisher School and we are sharing God’s peace, hope and joy.’ These words portray the essence of what St John Fisher school and its new Prayer Garden is all about.
The local elections are set for 6h May 2010, and the general election seems almost certain to be the same day.
With the much higher turnout for the latter, the result of the former could be surprising. There’ll be a whole load of people who don’t usually bother voting in local elections, who are handed a voting slip to do just that, because they’ve turned up to vote in the general election. Who knows whether these unexpected local election voters will simply mark the same box on both papers, or vote differently on each.
On top of that, around 5000 residents of St Albans district are not UK citizens, so they can’t vote in the general election. But they CAN vote in the local election. They could add to the possible result that the local election poll looks very different from the national one.
Hoping to persuade voters to give them at least one of their crosses on the big day, the Greens have launched a campaign video, fronted by St Peters ward candidate Simon Grover. You can see it on the link below.
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