Far and wide...

​Over the last few weeks, we’ve had the wonderful opportunity to share about our work with lots of different people from all over the UK. And we didn’t even have to go anywhere! People travelled from far and wide (sounds a bit like the nativity story!) to come to the Knitting and Stitching Show! It was held at the Harrogate International Centre over four days at the end of November. As you may have read in our previous blogs, it one of the biggest craft fairs in Europe (it is hard to describe how big it is! ‘Craft fair’ doesn’t really do justice to the scale of it. It’s more like a huge Craft Mall!) We were very fortunate to have a stall there again this year, where we sold our crafts made by differently-able people in Yorkshire & Arequipa, shared about our work, and gave visitors the opportunity to try some of the crafts we do at our therapeutic workshops. Many of our participants and volunteers came along to demonstrate the crafts to visitors (marbling, pom-pom-making and sewing felt flowers) and to sell some of the beautiful things they’ve been making over the last few months. 

'We’ve also had plenty of chances to share about our work with the local Harrogate community recently, through other craft fairs and through our Carols by Candelight service on the 1st December. We gathered at St Peter’s church in the very heart of Harrogate to sing carols together, drink mulled wine, eat mince pies and listen to some beautiful Christmas songs, performed by talented harpist and vocalist, Lucy Bunce. Some of you may remember the concert she did for us last year, and this year was another success. It was a lovely way to begin the Christmas season, and also a thought-provoking one. In the address, Susie spoke about the radical nature of the Christmas story, which is so often idealised and 'cosy-fied'. God came to us as a helpless baby and was born in the midst of real poverty. He came to bring hope to the wise men and to the shepherds, to the rich and the poorest of the poor. Susie reminded us that Craft Aid’s vision is also to bring hope to people on the margins all over the world, in the UK, Peru, Tanzania, Ecuador, and many more places in the future, where people with disabilities are still living in financial and social poverty. 

As we come towards the end of 2016, it is encouraging to see how the number of Craft Aid’s supporters have grown this year, both within Yorkshire and beyond! Thank you so much to everyone who has joined us on our journey this year, or continued to support us, whether that is through giving financially, coming to one of our events, buying our crafts, or volunteering with us. We are so grateful to all the people who enable us to make an impact both locally and globally.