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Community Champions Honoured

Unbelievably a whole 4 years have whizzed past since we joined the Menston community and to mark the occasion we wanted to support the lovely folks who have supported us on our journey so far - enter our Community Champion initiative.Our 'Community Champion' initiative will be honouring a local hero every month throughout 2017 to thank those who go the extra mile in our local neighbourhood. This month we are honouring Beth Street, a Menston resident for the past 12 years, who has become a truly valued member of the village.Beth integrated herself into the Yorkshire community as soon as she moved here and she is still making a huge impact today, recently leading the  fundraising activity to open a new defibrillator at Menston Station, through completing the Yorkshire Three Peaks and a 10K run.Her work in Menston started when her children went to Brownies, Beavers and Rainbows where she helped every week for few years. It was through this work that enabled her to organise the Eggs2ipads project in the village - an initiative in which older members of the Menston community get together with a team of teenagers to learn about accessing internet and other apps on tablets like the iPad and Kindle Fire. Beth also volunteered in Abbeyfield Residential Home for four years.Beth said of living in the village: “Thank goodness we found it. Menston is a beautiful village and I find people very warm, friendly, helpful and generous.  Of course, there's also the beautiful scenery around the village and we love our walk around the farm and through Ilkley Moor or the Chevin Forest.  And, it is this environment that started me walking then running. Being a part of all this also led to me wanting to fundraise through various charities or projects in the community.”She added: “I like to help others however small I can and I was shocked to be heralded a community champion as I don’t really think anything of it, but very much appreciate the gesture! I do hope that more projects will be happening in the village especially for our youths in the near future and hopefully able to help Steve Ellams and Menston Community Association in some way. It’s a fantastic place to live and I’m honoured to be a part of it”.On top of all the local work she’s involved in, Beth also has her own charity, www.AngelsForChildren.org.uk for underprivileged children in the Philippines where her fundraising has seen the development of 3 classrooms for the victims of typhoon Haiyan children and supported orphans & disabled children there.Lisa Greer from Ribston Pippin said: “So now, you see why we thought the lovely Beth was worth a shout out! We just wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU Beth from all of us in your local community, for everything you do. Achieving the defibrillator unit was such a boost and great success for all of us, as