Christmas Heatwave
by Catflea Massacre

The belief that Christmas comes but once a year is being challenged in Steel Street this year. A resident has applied to the ‘Community Fund’ for a grant to buy Christmas lights for the outside of the house in an attempt to change the tradition.
The 35 year old resident believes that as Christmas is always in winter with dark mornings and even darker evenings, the cold and the rain, it drives all the residents inside their houses, when really it should be a community occasion.
The grant is to cover the cost of lights, a bar-b-cue, bouncy castle and tombola stall, a Santa-a-gram and a present for each child on Steel and Sharp Street. At a total of £3400, the resident is asking for fifty percent from the ‘Community Fund, and then using the matched funding formula, forty percent is to asked of ‘Cumbria Community Conference Chamber Charity’ and the final ten percent from a locally held fund raising event.
The woman said, ‘I’m approaching the grant bodies first and looking at the likelihood of such a community event. Then once I have had word, I will be announcing the date and location of the fundraiser.

‘The idea behind the fundraiser is to hold a ‘pram race’ style race around the streets of Askam. It will follow the route of the proposed F1 track, (See Archived Stories – Editor) but instead of featuring prams, the race will be contested by a team of people pulling a sledge.
‘I am trying to stick with a winter theme and I know it won’t be as fast as a pram race and it will get a bit noisy, what with the steel runners digging into the road, but I still believe that it could be a brilliant spectacle.’
‘If the amount of £340 pounds can be raised through sponsorship I believe we will show to the funders that we are serious about holding the festival, and also the larger picture of having December 25th moved to a date in July.’
We will be hearing more in a month or so.
The Askam Herald is right behind the project and will be distributing sponsorship forms through this paper in downloadable format. If any reader would like to get involved or would like any more information on the proposed fundraiser/project you can contact the paper through the email link or the contact form.