The first Midsomer Norton Soup event was heralded a great success last week when St John Ambulance and Off The Record shared the £300 ‘cash funding pot’ for their projects.
Five groups in all entered, including the Silver Street Nature Reserve in partnership with the Wansdyke Play Association – bidding to run a project to bring young
people closer to nature.
Swallow presented a bid for funding for a new shed for their garden project. B&NES Age UK pitched for funding for a hot water drinks boiler for the Orchard Hall. St John
Ambulance Cadets presented a plan for funding First Aid Training in the community and Off the Record’s bid was for youth counselling.
“Each of the organisations presented such detailed and impassioned bids for their good causes; I think it’s fair to say that the whole hall was moved to learn more about the wonderful efforts of volunteers locally and the many and various needs they are addressing in our community,” said Paul Myers, Mayor of Midsomer Norton.
Certainly the format of people coming and paying £5 for a bowl of soup and a vote, knowing that the money goes to a good cause, seemed to work extremely well. It was also great that rather than some remote committee making a decision, it was the community itself that had the difficult decision of deciding who should receive the money – a really difficult call when all the bids were so good.
Thanks must go to event sponsors, BPB Accounting Solutions Limited and the Midsomer Norton Community Trust.
There are plans to have regular Soup events throughout the year as a means of supporting local good causes with fast track cash funding.