WREN took a stand at the Royal Cornwall Show, on the “Wadebridge Street”, and as it turned out, found ourselves surrounded by architects, accountants and solicitors.

We were there to let people know about the ways in which we can help, whether saving money and energy, or installing solar panels, or (the new area we are now getting into) providing opportunities for investment in local renewable energy production.

We were also giving away LED light bulbs to members who came to visit us at the stand (funded by the Hawkey family at The Olde House, Chapel Amble) and welcomed twelve new members who paid their £1 for life membership.

We held a competition, asking people to guess the proportion of houses in the Wadebridge (PL27) postcode area that have solar panels on their roofs: 1 in 10, 1 in 20, 1 in 50, or 1 in 100. (The answer is 1 in 10.) The winner, having the first correct entry drawn by Wadebridge Mayor Pamela Starling, was Angeline Davison, who received 50 Wrens to spend in 50 Wadebridge shops and businesses.

    Wadebridge Mayor, Cllr Pamela Starling, draws the winning entry, with WREN's Lizzy-Jane Frankel

Friday at the Show also saw presentations of the Pengelley CE Wind Turbine community fund at the CleanEarth stand. First, Ian Hodge of Pengelly Farm presented £10,000 to Kevin Smith of WREN. Then, because WREN is the administrator of the fund and not a beneficiary, Kevin immediately handed over cheques to those of the 19 beneficiaries who were also present.

    WREN director Kevin Smith receives the cheque from Ian Hodge (photo courtesy of CleanEarth)

The following week, Kevin had the privilege of presenting £1,000 from the fund to the Wadebridge Memory Café, during one of their Saturday afternoon meetings. The remaining awards were sent by post.

    Memory Cafe chairman Paul Brocklebank receives the cheque from WREN's Kevin Smith

30th June 2015