21/05/2009 - Young Farmers Educate.......
Young Farmers Educate and Entertain with their Food, Farming and the Countryside Exhibition.Members of Worth Valley Young Farmers Club held a highly successful Food, Farming and the Countryside Exhibition last weekend and layed on free busses to bring out young people from urban areas to spend a day in the Countryside and learn that food does not just come from the supermarket.
Younger members of the club held regular meetings to plan the format of the exhibition and in the weeks leading up to the event they designed and distributed 10,000 free tickets to under 16s in the urban areas of nearby Bradford and Keighley. Response was much better than anticipated with over four thousand people visiting the young farmers section and being were guided through the journey that food makes from field to fork. This was done using livestock provided by members and demonstrations from local butcher Chris Herd and the team from Alfe’s Restaurant in nearby Keighley.
The concept for the exhibition came from the Club’s Open Farm day 2008 when members realised that some young people in urban areas had never been to the countryside and that many had little idea where food came from prior to its arrival at the supermarket. The Club’s younger members felt so passionate about this that they put in a proposal to try to address this problem to Bradford Council’s Youth Opportunity Fund. Largely due to the experience of the Club’s members at YFC public speaking competitions, two members wowed a young person’s panel in a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style interview. This secured the club an award of over £30,000 to run their project which included the purchase of a new 9m x 27m marquee in which they held the exhibition last weekend.
Members also organised a number of events to keep people entertained as well as educated and these included Sheep Racing, a Mascot Olympics and a Scrapheap challenge which saw the winning team fire an orange over half a mile. The club also organised a wrestling show in the new marquee on the Saturday evening with over £500 being raised for National Healthcare Charity Sue Ryder Care which will contribute to the club’s rural apprentice entry when the competition is judged at the YFYFC County Show on 7th June at the Nidderdale Show Ground, Pateley Bridge.
The entire project was hailed as a huge success by Worth Valley’s exhibition working party Chairman Hollie Ogden aged 18. “Our young members should be proud of what they have achieved with this project, it was one of the most busy sections of the entire show and we know that hundreds of these were urban young people as they brought their tickets with them. An added bonus is that we gained at least five new members over the weekend and raised the profile of Young Farmers in the West Yorkshire area immensely.”
Club Chairman and Thomas Ogden was also impressed with the efforts of the 45 members of Worth Valley, and extended thanks to members of other local clubs Aire Valley, Holme Valley and Calderdale YFC who contributed greatly over the weekend. “We hope that other clubs around the country might follow what we have done here and gain the same benefits as our members have done.”
Worth Valley YFC website
www.worthvalley.org_____________________________________
21/04/2009 - Young Farmers Ditch Their Tractors… For A Giant Crisp Box!If you see a giant crisp box hurtling towards you around the district, you’re not hallucinating, it’s the Yorkshire Young Farmers doing their bit for the national healthcare charity Sue Ryder Care.
The gutsy team, which is part of The Yorkshire Federation of Young Farmers Clubs (YFYFC) has decided to don a giant, custom-made Seabrook Crisp box - Prawn Cocktail to be exact – powered by a four-man pedal vehicle, as they amble their way from Scotch Corner to the federation’s AGM in Blackpool, 1st May 2009.
Along the way, they will stop off to collect money for Sue Ryder Care, and Seabrook Crisps has given them a limitless supply of its tasty snacks to hand to lucky punters… as well as the members to eat themselves as they make their epic journey.
The team of energetic young farmers, seven of which are from Worth Valley YFC, approached Seabrook Crisps because they considered the 64 year old crisp brand to be Yorkshire’s greatest export, which is their theme for this year’s activity and an accolade Seabrook is proud to accept.
Ken Brook-Chrispin commented “To be recognised as Yorkshire’s greatest export by this plucky young bunch of Yorkshire-people is a great testament to the brand and the place it holds in Yorkshire people’s hearts. Its fabulous to see such regional pride and passion amongst young people, which can only mean great things for the future of British farming and manufacturing.”
The determined Yorkshire farmers will begin the four-day challenge, from 28th April, at Scotch Corner, North Yorkshire. They will make scheduled stops at a number of great towns en-route to Blackpool, where they will be greeted by the rest of the young farmers… probably hoping there are some crisps left.
Worth Valley YFC Chairman Thomas Ogden who has created the four man bike at the family run agricultural engineers in Newsholme says, “Nothing will give us greater pride and pleasure than to complete this challenge in a Seabrook Crisp box. Seabrook is a brand close to the hearts of many Yorkshire farmers, as the company goes out of its way to source its spuds from its Yorkshire heartland… plus they make very tasty and crunchy crisps`’.
This year’s chosen activity is all in the name of promoting the Yorkshire Federation of Young Farmers Clubs, and to raise funds for the Sue Ryder Care charity, which works to provide compassionate care and support for people living with serious illnesses and conditions, as well as providing care for their family and loved ones. YFC members are encouraging people to donate online at
www.justgiving.com/yorkshiresgreatestexport_____________________________________
10/04/2009 - Young Farmers "ready to rumble" for hospiceMembers of Worth Valley Young Farmers Club have turned their hands to wrestling show organisers as part of a Yorkshire wide competition for Young Farmers to raise funds for Sue Ryder Care- Manorlands hospice using their entrepreneurial skills.
The Club has hired the services of the Pro Rebel Wrestling group who will put on an indoor show on the evening of Saturday 9th May at the site of the Bronte Vintage Gathering, at Haworth Road, Cullingworth and it is hoped that a full house will swell funds raised.
Worth Valley YFC Vice Chairman David Johnson is very excited about the event and hopes that it might help the club’s chances in the ‘Rural Apprentice’ competition when it is judged in early June. “When we had to come up with a new initiative to raise money for Manorlands it made sense to stick to something that we know about and enjoy. Many of our members enjoy watching wrestling and so to organise a wrestling show that the public will enjoy and pay to see made perfect sense. There has already been lots of interest in tickets to this family show and the wrestlers themselves have been helpful. When they found out that all the proceeds were going to such a good cause they offered to hold a very special ‘shave your head match.’ This will involve two wrestlers with long hair compete in a match where the loser has his locks shaved off by the victor. “
Club secretary Sophie Ogden is also looking forward to the event, “last year on our annual YFC charity pram push some of our members put on a show in a home made ring at the top of Haworth main street outside the Black Bull and the crowd loved it. We were only messing about, but these guys are the real deal, and we are sure that tickets will sell out quickly.
The 150 minute long show will commence at 7pm and a free evening of entertainment from rock and roll group the 309s follows for those who wish to stay on. Tickets cost £6 for adults and £4 concessions and are available to order on 01535 640432 or through the Worth Valley YFC website
www.worthvalley.org_____________________________________
16/03/2009 Worth Valley YFC young members awarded £30,000 Young members of Worth Valley Young Farmers Club in West Yorkshire have been successful in gaining grant funding of £30,524 from Bradford Council’s Youth Opportunities Fund and Youth Capital Fund for a project which they have titled ‘Rural Revival’.
The project involves club promotion, the purchase of a large marquee in which the club and other rural community groups can hold events and an ambitious plan to hold a ‘Food, Farming and the Countryside exhibition to educate young people in the Bradford district about these issues and encourage them to spend a day in the Countryside with their rural peers.
A group of the club’s members aged between 13 and 19 came up with the ‘Rural Revival’ project idea last October and wrote a detailed application bid to get through the first round where approximately fifty other organisations applied for funding. One of their partners, Aire Valley YFC were also helpful in getting the club through this stage. The second round took the form of an interview where two of the club’s members Hollie Ogden 17 and Alex Binns 13 were selected to pitch their idea and answer questions from a panel of other 13 to 19 year olds. Alex explained, “It was a bit like being on ‘Dragons Den’ but I think our experience of Young Farmers public speaking competitions must have helped as the feedback we received was excellent, we were in the top four organisations and were awarded the full amount we needed to run this project. I think they also liked our plans as they were a lot different from the other youth groups and involved young people helping other people.”
The grant has allowed the club to set its ambitious plans for the year into motion which commenced with the staging of last week’s successful Pantomime which involved promoting the club, teaching the young members new skills and recruiting new members. The members attention now turns to the ‘Food, Farming and the Countryside’ exhibition which will take place at the Bronte Vintage Gathering, Cullingworth, West Yorkshire on 9th and 10th May where they will use their new marquee for the first time. Plans are being drawn up to ensure that every young person in the Bradford district can travel to and enter the exhibition free of charge where they will see livestock, a cooking demonstration and learn about local produce and health.
Chairman of the club’s rural revival working party Hollie Ogden explained why members were so pleased the grant had helped them to educate other young people. “The club did an open farm visit for schools last year and found many children from urban areas knew little about where their food comes from. We think that a great way for them to learn will be through a fun day out in the countryside where they can also take part in events that young farmers get up to such as sports, stock judging and public speaking. We are keen to get members from all over the county involved in this event as it’s a great chance to promote YFC not just locally but on a much wider scale.
Any clubs interested in getting involved in this event should log onto the club’s web site www.worthvalley.org and leave an enquiry.
A cheque for £650 was presented to the Royal British Legion from the sale of the DVD of the 2009 Haworth 1940's weekend.
