Thanks to generous donations, 11 boxes of children’s and young adults’ books have made their way from Montgomery to Pune, India to bolster the bookcase library at City of Child orphanage.

In November 2019, as part of the Trefoil Topaz trip, Sue Michaels of Montgomery was volunteering at City of Child, the orphanage run by the Deep Griha Charity.

Since the volunteering trip, Sue has been asked to give talks about the trip to a range of organisations. Rather than trying to raise money, which can be a challenge to send out to India, she thought she would collect children’s books for the library at the orphanage.

One of the talks that Sue did was for Newtown Rotary and she made the same plea there.

Little did she realise how efficient they were and, once movement was allowed again locally, she was contacted and then had delivered to her about 800 books which they had been collecting.

Members of the Monty Hour audience contributed further to the book collection following her February talk.

Wenlock Spring Water, for whom Sue works, donated boxes for packing, and she already had a willing donor to pay for the carriage of those boxes.

On March 25 the boxes were collected by the courier and Sue was very pleased to hear that every one of them arrived safely in India.

By April 14 the books were at the orphanage at City of Child ready to be enjoyed.

Big Ride raises awareness of Palestinian dead

Montgomery welcomed members of the newly formed Montgomeryshire Branch of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, who were making a brief stop in the town on Tuesday morning as they cycled to Newtown from Churchstoke as part of the Big Ride Spring Challenge.

Residents and supporters, Deborah and Tod Simmonds, deputy mayor, Jill Kibble, and town crier, Sue Blower, were there to greet them.

One of the founders of the Montgomeryshire Branch, Kathy Brooks from Berriew, said: “This is not about fundraising but awareness-raising and hundreds of riders have taken part in the Spring Challenge all over the UK and also in America, Croatia and Palestine itself.

“I am fairly sure we were the only group of riders who had the honour of being rung in by a town crier.

“The Big Ride Spring Challenge is a 547 mile distance, with this number representing the number of Palestinian children who died in the 2014 51-day bombardment.

“I have been to Palestine and seen for myself the conditions under which people are living their lives. The ride is a great way of raising the profile of our campaign.”

If you are interested in the PSC group please contact Kathy on montgomeryshirepsc@gmail.com.

Prince Philip remembered

As the nation came together at 3pm on Saturday, members of the Montgomery community marked HRH Prince Philip’s funeral by observing the country-wide one-minute’s silence across the town.

At the town war memorial, the mayor and a small number of socially-distanced mourners stood in silence as Paul Hodgson lowered the flag, laying it at the foot of the town’s Roll of Honour.

Drawing the short ceremony to a close and signifying a serviceman’s final farewell, Nikki Pugh sounded The Last Post.

Monty Hour’s economy talk

The last Monty Hour of April, on Wednesday 28th, will look at Circular Economy Mid Wales with Jeremy Thorp.

To join the Monty Hour on Wednesdays, 7-8pm, go to https://montgomery.cloud/hour where you will also find previous recordings and details of upcoming events.

Mini winners earn their Easter prizes

Mini Montys have announced the winners of their Easter competitions for children.

Chair of Mini Montys, Claire Powell, said: “The entries we received were fantastic.

“Caryl Davies was kind enough to judge for us, and she loved how they were all different and creative.”

The winner of the under 3 colouring category was Ruby, age 21 months. Isabella Thompson, age four, won the 3-6 yrs Easter Craft category. Second prize went to Olivia Powell with Megan Stoneley and Emmie Morgan in joint third place.