90th Birthday Event
Over 100 people from rural communities across Oxfordshire got together on 3 July to celebrate the 90th birthday of Oxfordshire Rural Community Council (ORCC) and the wealth of ideas, enterprise and effort that local volunteers around the county are putting into projects and activities to benefit community members.
The half day event at the Four Pillars Hotel in Abingdon saw the launch of a new ORCC publication highlighting over 100 valued features of 21st century rural community life chosen and submitted by communities themselves. “Celebrating Community Life in Rural Oxfordshire” also reminds readers of the invaluable help and support available from ORCC for community groups and project organisers.
The ORCC birthday party provided everyone present with an informal opportunity to meet other community members with similar interests and concerns and to pick up new ideas and share experience, inspired by the wide range of local initiatives described in the new publication.
The enthusiasm for this kind of networking was obvious from people’s parting comments: “Today’s networking event was the best I have ever attended – more like this, please, ORCC!”
A prize draw took place for all the entries in the publication. A cheque for £100 was sent to each of the five winning parishes be spent for the benefit of their community. The winners were as follows: Wootton & Dry Sandford, Upton, Fulbrook, Charlbury and Charney Bassett.
ORCC was the first pioneering Rural Community Council to be established in the country and is the first RCC to gain their national network’s top quality mark following Charity Commission accreditation. The organisation was delighted to receive at the event the congratulations of Anne Kelaart, Deputy Lord Lieutenant, on behalf of the Lord Lieutenant who has provided a Foreword for the new publication, and Sylvia Brown, Chief Executive of Action with Communities in Rural England, representing RCCs nationwide.
Tags: ORCC general
