Westfield Parish Council has been contacted by Westfield, Massachusetts to have a ‘link up’, to be aired by Somer Valley FM on New Year’s Eve. The people of the US town are celebrating their 350th anniversary next year, and are looking to link up with any other Westfields in the world.
As our local parish is significantly younger, it was thought that it would be fitting to ask younger people to put their thoughts out there about Westfield. As a result the Parish Council is looking for any young person, or persons, from 16–25 that live in Westfield to share their views and stories about their parish with a resident of Westfield, Massachusetts in a radio link. The conversation will take place at an agreed time and be recorded by Somer Valley FM, ready to be broadcast on New Year’s Eve. This could be a perfect opportunity for someone studying Media studies, or politics, or any other medium of communication studies to hone their skills in the art of discussion. It could be a chance for any young person to discover things about a Westfield in another part of the world and to compare life there with their own.
Somer Valley FM are very happy to be orchestrating the conversation and to broadcast it on New Year’s Eve. Station Manager, Dom Chambers, said: “Radio is a fantastic way to bring people together from different parts of the world to explore commonality and the shared experience of their lives. Anything that breeds greater understanding between people and their communities is so important, and grass roots media can be a particularly strong catalyst for this. I am delighted that Somer Valley FM can support this imaginative trans-Atlantic link-up. The mics are on and let the conversation roll! Meanwhile, we will happily give encouragement and training to any young resident of Westfield wanting to get involved.”
This is quite an exciting venture for Westfield, and the parish does not know what may come of the links that are made. Chair of the Parish Council, Cllr Geoff Fuller, said: “We are quite excited to have been contacted by Westfield, Massachusetts to help them to celebrate their 350th anniversary. It is a real milestone for them and maybe we can get some tips from them for when we celebrate our tenth anniversary in 2021!”
If anyone is interested in taking part in this conversation, then please contact the Parish Council on: 01761 410669 or email: [email protected] Should you be interested in finding out about the US town, you can find them on Facebook; just search Westfield Massachusetts.