In the month of December our amazing volunteers ran a series of Christmas events at Caban Guto. The volunteers wanted to do something special for the local communities, especially families and children & young people because the pandemic as we know, has been particularly hard on many of us so, the volunteers wanted to bring a bit of joy and festivity to the end of 2021.

The Caban Guto volunteer team ran events on the 11^th, 12^th, 17^th & 18^th of December.

They held traditional hymns and carols, festive storytelling, children’s craft, and Sion Corn himself made several appearances. The kitchen volunteer crew made sure everyone was well fed, serving up, festive cocoa, mince pies, bacon and sausage baps, and some lovely sweet treats were donated by volunteers.

The weather wasn’t always on our side but the volunteers prevailed, and with a little help from our friends at Butcher's Pool, our event could go ahead as they provided a robust Gazebo for the second weekend.

A local photography group, Happy Snappers donated an extremely generous 1^st prize to the raffle which was, a family photoshoot won by four lucky people. In addition to families who booked on to the main event, we were joined by walkers and bikers who were passing by, and even had visitors from as far afield as Cardiff, as our volunteer marketing crew made sure the event was well publicised on social media.

The biggest takeaway from the event is how much volunteers pulled together, and through pure grit and determination, they made these events a success and are now keen to explore what is next for Caban Guto visitors.

The second big thing we discovered was the astounding generosity within our community, we were overwhelmed with donations of all kinds.  We want to say a very special thanks to Rhondda Fach Women’s Institute for a surprise donation securing much needed equipment for the Caban, we were over the moon to receive this, as it will make the volunteers job much easier and enable them to keep offering hearty warm food, and explore how they can  continue to expand the menu. 

We would like to thank our our very own Dave Harris and the BeActif project, who provided a contribution and his own time as part of Ynysybwl Regeneration Partnership to support these events.  We were gifted kitchen equipment from a lady of unknown location!  We hope we can locate you to give you the thanks you deserve, and  Siop y Bwl who provided cost price items for Santa’s traditional gift bags that were just delightful. We want to take the opportunity to thank Ynysybwl Co-op for a donation of mulled wine and mince pies as part of their community offer, and Lucinda Cadwallader and Little Me House who supported us with a food donation, and stock run for our Accessibility Event  that took place back in September (before we had a page!) Finally, we would like to thank the Con Club which is the Caban Guto, volunteer meeting HQ where all our creative planning takes place, this space is really important to us.

What we have learned and will take from 2021 is this, if you do something with love, which is what all our volunteers do every time we open our doors at Caban Guto, it tends to come back to you tenfold because kindness begets kindness as the old adage goes. So with that, Happy New Year everyone… from all the Caban Guto volunteers, we hope 2022 will be the best one ever.

For more information on how you can volunteer at Caban Guto please contact lowriowen@yrp.wales.