Brigstock Living Advent Calendar
This has been our 12th year of brightening up the village with fabulous, creative windows and garden scenes raising money for two amazing charities: 'North Northants First Responders' and 'The Air Ambulance'.
From small beginnings in 2013, Jane Jones persuaded businesses and villagers to host a ‘reveal’ for each evening from 1st December to Christmas Eve. Over the years there have been religious and non-religious scenes: stunning woodlands, crocheted wreaths, knitted characters, angels, robins, ice skaters, skiers, and après skiers with broken legs! There have been knitted lifeboat characters rescuing Mrs Claus when she has gone open-water swimming. Christmas photos of the village dogs, Three Kings, candles high in windows, an amazing library of Santa Claus, an eco-friendly Christmas tree using recycled bottle tops and egg cartons, and of course we were very lucky to have The Polar Express visit us, by kind permission of 'AC Binns' of Thrapston, along with three fabulously decorated tractors from our local farmers this year.
Each evening at 6.45pm we’ve gathered and had a countdown to the covers coming off; we’ve been rewarded for coming out in hail, gusty winds, rain, snow, and the clearest, crispest, starry evenings. We have been given a wee drop of something, along with sweets or mince pies a real treat out in the chilly air. Photographs of each window have been made into Christmas cards, paid for by the 'Brigstock Beer Festival' and sold, making over £400.
The efforts of this lovely village have also been rewarded by the amount we have been able to raise for charities this year being the highest yet, at over £2,600, shared between the North Northants First Responders and the Air Ambulance.
Keli from North Northants Community First Responders says -"As Brigstock’s First Responder, the charity receiving such a sizeable sum of money means the world. We can now rest assured I can stay in the road for a good while responding to emergencies with less worry about how this will be funded. I’d like to thank Karen and her team, plus the wonderful people of the village and those that came from further away to see and support this remarkable event. We are very grateful".
Stacey Price adds "On behalf of the Trustees of North Northants First Responders, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in supporting us. The dedication and generosity of the community enable our volunteer responders to go out and do what they do best 'supporting our community in their time of a medical emergency' where every second counts and without this support, it simply wouldn’t be possible.
Our village responders are particularly invaluable; in rural areas it can take longer for an ambulance to arrive, which means that when a responder is logged on within the village, they are often first on scene. This allows vital, life-saving treatment to begin immediately, making a real and lasting difference to patient outcomes. Thank you to the village of Brigstock and the organisers"