Five years ago I wrote my very first 'Somerset cool’ blog. It was about the Talbot Inn in Mells and it was short and sweet! Since then, there have been hundreds of blogs, the radio shows, lovely friends who I wouldn’t have met without Somerset cool and lots of brilliant community stories.
When I was thinking about what to do to mark five years of Somerset cool, there was really only one thing on my mind - sharing the kindness of the community in Somerset and celebrating it more regularly, especially considering the current times we’re all living through.
It first struck me when I was doing my ‘Good Stuff’ radio show last year during lockdown 1, when many of you got in touch to tell me about people in your communities who were very supportive and often unsung. Co-hosting BBC Radio Somerset’s Somerset Superstars meant I got to chat to more people making a difference too, which was fantastic.
So, today sees the launch of ‘Somerset cool kindness’ - a way for us all to continually share and recognise the kindness and support of people across our county. We'll be celebrating acts of kindness from the small to the huge!
Here's how you can get involved.
If there’s someone you want to say thank you to, you can always email kindness@somersetcool.com and I will keep room on every radio show of mine to share your stories of people doing brilliant things here in Somerset. I’ll also write about some of them on the blog this year and share snippets on social media.
And there’s something extra special too.
I’ve been chatting to awesome artist, Rebecca Bruton, to see what we could cook up that’s a little bit different - something we can create as part of Somerset cool kindness that’s given out as a little surprise to people who’ve really warmed the heart.
Rebecca creates beautiful embroidered hoops as part of her practice and throughout the year, we’ll be giving out a small number of ‘kindness’ hoops, handmade by Rebecca, as a very special thank you.
So, if you’d like to let us know about some Somerset cool kindness happening in your community, just email kindness@somersetcool.com. There’s no deadline, no expiry date, the mailbox is always open and I’ll continually share some of your positive stories wherever they may come from in Somerset and Exmoor.
Happy five years and thank you for your support and friendship throughout it.
Kindness is most definitely cool!
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