Community

The Spalding Festival has been cancelled for a second successive year, but organisers have promised it will return bigger and better than ever. Those behind the Castle Sports Complex based highlight have taken the decision to not hold the 2021 event during the late May Bank Holiday due to the ongoing pandemic which also forced the cancellation of the 2020 ...

One elderly Fleet resident received her first present for 14 years, it’s been claimed, as a community rallied around to provide gifts for some of their most vulnerable neighbours. As part of the Fleet Christmas Cheerfulness campaign, Fleet Residents Events Committee were able to give out 55 presents to local people. The gift bags, which were funded by Coun Peter ...

The generosity of the public will make Christmas a much nicer time for those in need as the Give a Gift campaign celebrates its most successful year to date. Spearheaded by Coun Harry Drury, Give a Gift has passed on donated toys to less fortunate children for the last nine years. Harry said: “Even after nine years of doing this, ...

A host of health care workers around Spalding were treated to a mince pie thanks to customers at Applegreen Service Station. The A16, Cowbit Road business recently had a two for £2 offer on mince pies and asked customers to donate one box to NHS or care home staff. In the first week alone, 218 boxes were sent out to ...

The Spalding branch of Nationwide has provided its own present to the town – a new defibrillator. Staff at the Market Place branch have raised the money for the equipment themselves. And they’ve also been trained up on how to use it thanks to Lincolnshire’s first responder charity LIVES. It was funding thanks to generous customers alongside raffles and fundraising ...

It’s been as festive an end of term as possible for the University Academy Holbeach. Christmas plays and playing brass instruments was out of the question but they were still able to put on a concert. In social bubbles boomwhackers, ukelele, drumming and choir ensembles were able to put together performances broadcast on Zoom. The Year 10 choir Year Nine ...

A nine-year-old Spalding business entrepreneur has been raising money for charity in the run up to Christmas. Oscar Shaw’s Blasting Bakes business has been going from strength-to-strength since beginning earlier this year. As previously reported, the business was started initially as a way for the autistic Gosberton Clough and Risegate Primary School pupil to learn during lockdown. But Oscar’s bakes ...

The run up to Christmas has been busy for a South Holland charity. Ella’s Project founder Mark Le Sage, local chair for the Royal College of Nursing, visited local surgeries to deliver thank-you bags for nursing staff. sdr The charity also delivered a shipment of toys which had been bought by generous customers art Lord’s Collectables in Pinchbeck. All the ...

Schools across the area got into the festive spirit by wearing their Christmas jumpers last week. There was a Christmas feel to the end of a very unusual term as pupils and teachers alike donned jumpers with a variety of designs. Looking festive at St Bartholomew’s. Spalding Academy staff show off their Christmas jumpers. St Barts Christmas jumpers Staff at ...

Staff at the Libertas Reablement Services were treated to some festive cheer thanks to another local company. Hungry Plaice fish and chip van made a special delivery to the Pinchbeck company. “We want to say a massive thank-you to Justin and Georgina for their kind and thoughtful gesture,” said manager Maxine Candler. The company has been working throughout the pandemic ...

Spalding’s Johnson Hospital is to remain open to a select number of visitors over the Christmas period. The Lincolnshire Communities Health Services NHS Trust which runs the Pinchbeck Road site alongside hospitals in Louth, Gainsborough and Skegness, is putting in measures for those wishing to visit patients. To help reduce the risk of spreading coronavirus to vulnerable patients, all visitors ...

Volunteers and supporters of a South Holland food bank have seen around four times the usual number of people because of coronavirus. The Holbeach Food Bank has been open throughout the pandemic, and will be helping many families during the festive season. The volunteers behind the community effort have even put together 56 parcels, complete with gifts, for Christmas. “We ...

Some of the area’s most isolated elderly people have been given a Christmas cheer thanks to The Meadows Day Centre charity and Morrisons. Since the COVID-19 outbreak in March The Meadows hasn’t been able to accommodate the usual sessions bringing elderly people together for games and community. And one of their biggest highlights of the years is the Christmas party ...

Our annual Give A Gift appeal has now closed and we want to say thank you for the amazing support we have received once again this year. Along with members of the public donating gifts, several businesses across South Holland have got involved with the appeal. Spalding Academy and Giles Academy, which are part of the South Lincolnshire Academies Trust, ...

A new Good Neighbours Scheme for people in the south of the district is up and running while those behind a similar proposed project in Spalding say they’re ‘delighted’ with the response they’ve had from the public. The East Elloe Good Neighbour Scheme has begun to carry out some services despite the area being placed in the highest COVID-19 restrictions ...

A Spalding 15-year-old has, for the fifth straight year, bought presents to bring children in care an extra reason to smile at Christmas. Jake Winkett uses his own money to donate toys to good causes, something that he’s done for several years. This year the Spalding Academy pupil donated tens of presents for the Kids Out charity to be handed ...

Santa Claus arrived in style on a trike when a broken down sleigh didn’t stop him helping Fleet residents spread some extra Christmas cheer this year while raising a grand for the parish church. The village has looked to boost community spirit via the Christmas Cheerfulness Campaign which was launched this year. But the potential obstacle to last week’s celebrates ...

Kind hearted friends have brought some Christmas cheer to care home residents in Spalding. Trudy Roberts and Karen Dakin used social media to ask friends and family for donations of chocolates and toiletries which they packed into 222 parcels and delivered to care home residents. Initially the pair, who met through work, were going to give the parcels to residents ...

The first night out with Santa’s Sleigh proved successful for South Holland Rotary Club. Despite the difficulties of the pandemic, Santa was able to take part in the annual event organised by the charity. Social distancing measures might mean giving donations is not as easy as in previous years. A special text and donate service has been arranged so the ...

Christmas will be extra special for a group of South Holland children who don’t know it yet. They will be unwrapping a brand new bike, complete with helmet and lock, thanks to the efforts of a local kind-hearted businessmen. Daniel Lunn and John Barton have been renovating donated bicycles and giving them to children who would otherwise go without. But ...