Time to honour another local hero! This month’s Community Champion is Menston in Bloom’s Gemma Kelmanson who’s been out braving the elements with her team to make sure our village looks fabulous come spring.

Menston In Bloom is a community organisation run by volunteers with the aim of helping to make Menston a lovely place to live through a wide range of horticultural activities. Come rain or shine, Gemma and the Bloomers are out and about in the community doing some amazing work brightening up the neighbourhood, and we feel really lucky to have them as a part of the village community.

From organising and producing the beautiful Tour De Yorkshire showstopper earlier this year, running the annual plant sale and cream tea afternoon at Heather Bank in May and co-ordinating the ‘Great Menston Bulb Plant’ every autumn, the team works tirelessly to ensure Menston is always blooming (whatever the British weather throws at us!)

Last year they planted two and a half thousand  bulbs on a cold November morning – helping to prepare Menston for wowing in the spring – this year they have planted closer to 3000!

We were delighted to support the team in donating some additional bulbs to their project in addition to treating them to a voucher for Tres Bon Raymond, for some warming cups of coffee and much deserved cake when they were all done!

Gemma said: “Thank you for coming down to see us this morning and bringing the bulbs and vouchers – both greatly appreciated! We planted the bulbs along the wall in Butterfield Park, which should make a lovely display in the spring. When they are flowering I’ll make sure I get a photograph and send it to you! I’ll keep you up to date with our projects, in particular the Peace Beds, which we will be planning and planting over the winter and spring.Thanks again for your support”.