"New" Olney Church Hall in Operation Serving the Community 0n Saturday, 26th October at 10.00am, Mark Lancaster cut the red ribbon stretched across the entrance to the Church Hall, and announced to the waiting crowd that the Hall was now reopened. It has been a long journey. From the first gem of an idea, it grew into a plan to completely renovate the rather tired traditional Victorian building to accommodate two initiatives - a Youth Cafe, run by young people for young people, and a Memory Club to assist those whose memories were beginning to fail. It has taken several months of hard work; during the school summer holiday the workmen moved in, and early in September the work was complete. The youth cafe has been running successfully for a few weeks and, after training, the volunteers and club members have had the first of their monthly meetings. On the day of the official opening, the celebrations began, with the cafe providing drinks, complimentary food, and, of course, a celebratory cake! Members of the community were shown around to admire the transformation- the bright, welcoming hall, the meeting room and the mezzanine floor, maximising the space. Other innovations include a completely revamped and extended kitchen, new toilets, plus a disabled toilet and a wet room. The Hall remained open throughout the half term week, enabling all who wished to do so to visit and admire this valuable addition to our town. It began as a dream - it is now a reality. Olney Town Fireworks Olney Fireworks Night took place on Sunday 3rd November. After all the recent storms, the weather was really kind to us. It was a great night and a huge crowd witnessed a fantastic display from Dynamic Fireworks. The 20-minute spectacular, contained a vast array of amazing pyrotechnic effects. On entry, every child was given a free glow stick by our sponsor, and they were seen swinging and twirling through the night sky before the display. We were also very pleased by the support of local catering businesses, who provided high quality food and drink outlets, and that's something we'll look to repeat - they were extremely well used! The Olney Group (TOG) couldn't run an event of this size without a good deal of help. Special thanks go to: The Newport Pagnell and Olney Lions Club, the Olney Sports Clubs, Olney Town Council and, of course, our sponsor, Stephen Oakley & Co. Estate Agents. For more info on TOG, or if you would like to join our team, see www.theolneygroup. org or call Mark on 07743 983686. *Pl MBER DAVE * 24 hours a day 365 days of the year All aspects of Heating, Plumbing * and Boiler Breakdowns * Local Fast Friendly Service and advice A Traditional, reasonable, quality * service you can trust * 25 + years of experience No VAT on labour Tel: 07961 441 871 01908 218 925 A Bozeat Building Services Kitchens Bathrooms Electrical Carpentry Decorating All Aspects of Building Work Engineers - Gas Safe Part 'P' Electricians - NIC Qualified Tradesman Tree care Stoves supplied and fitted Project Management Coordination Peartree House, 21 London Road, Bozeat NN29 7LZ Tel:01933665930 Mobile:07804981801 email: vilma.irving@btinternet.com Vulcanhall ltd PhoneboxMagazine 89