Charity is at the heart of young farmers' movement
Well, the festive period has flown by and went as quickly as it came!
However, members of the Shropshire Federation of Young Farmers certainly made the most of it. During the festive period, Young Farmers from all 18 clubs that are dotted around Shropshire took part in Christmas activities with the main one being carol singing.
Members headed out to family parties, pubs and local houses to give their best renditions of traditional and contemporary carols in return for charitable donations. It has long been wondered whether we get the donations for the quality of the singing or to just go away! Whichever you choose to believe, the donations came flying in and in excess of £10,000 was raised throughout the county which will be donated on to charities of each club’s choosing.
I believe charity is right at the heart of the YFC movement and it’s great to see young, local people donating a considerable amount of time and resource for the benefit of other charitable causes.
We have recently held the Shropshire final of the After Dinner Speaking competition at Cross Houses Village Hall. The quality of this competition amazes me every year. Members are tasked with composing a six-minute speech based around a given theme, then as a team of five are judged on their ability to write and perform their speech.
I am sure that the members who partake in this competition gain huge amounts of confidence in public speaking, which can be a potent skill to have in a person’s repertoire. Congratulations to Clun YFC who came first and therefore go through to the West Midland Area final.
Coming up in February we have the YFC Performing Arts competition where members get a chance to become thespians for the evening. The competition rotates on a three-year rota comprising Pantomime, Drama and this year, Entertainments.
Entertainments is the least descript of the three by giving members a free rein to "entertain" the audience. Many of the performances will be a mixture of three or four shorter sketches including as much originality as possible. Also there is a "One Plus" competition which gives the smaller clubs a chance to get a maximum of 10 members on stage for up to six minutes to perform anything they like. This competition is purposely smaller, but that does not mean it is any less entertaining.
The competition is from 7pm on February 21 to 23 at Whitchurch Civic Centre where everyone is welcome to come and watch.
Fred Allen is Shropshire YFC county chairman
