Staffordshire Young Farmers Clubs (YFC) held their sixth successful Christmas Shopping Evening on Thursday 6th December at The Ingestre Suite on the County Showground, Stafford. The vast room was filled with 63 stalls from across the Staffordshire selling local produce including Nelsons Gin based just outside of Uttoxeter and The Wissage Bakehouse, who are based in Aston just outside of Stafford. Also attending was local Stone YFC member, Becky Roe has just launched her new company called “Pebble and Sage” designing original and unique prints, cards and invitations. Becky has also recently benefited from a grant from Staffordshire YFC, to help her with her design company, helping her business to flourish and grow.
The newly formed Cheadle YFC members also put their creative skills to the test and bought along a stall with handcrafted decorations and gift ideas to help raise funds for the Club.
The YFC Office had to set up a waiting list during the month before as stallholders were desperate to secure a pitch at this growingly popular event. Doors opened to the public at 6.30pm with a brisk trade all evening, with over 380 visitors who were greeted with a freshly baked mince pie and warmed mulled wine to set the festive scene for a great indoor shopping experience. The federation were well supported again by local turkey farmer Sandra Hopley based in Tixall, who kindly supplied hot turkey rolls on sale, which smelt delicious as everyone arrived.
There was also a raffle held during the evening, kindly supported by many of the stallholders who donated prizes and manned very well by Pav and Isobelle of Barclays Bank who very generously agreed to match fund on the evening through the Barclays Bank community initiative.
County Chairman, Polly Baines said “Once again this year, our Christmas Shopping Evening has exceeded all expectations. We are very grateful to the Staffordshire and Birmingham Agricultural Society for allowing us to use the fantastic showground facility to hold the event in. We like to encourage stalls with local produce, craft and unique goods that cannot be found on the high street to come along and they definitely did that on Thursday night, kickstarting to the festive shopping season for all our visitors in style.”
Staffordshire Young Farmers will be holding the evening again next year on Thursday 5th December as part of their vast calendar of events which raise funds for the organisation, which is a registered charity. This enables the Federation to provide support, training and competitions to its membership which is now over 550 young people aged 10 – 26 years.
To view photos from the evening, please click here.
