Spreading smiles with a street-wide harvest festival

The children of Grasmere Avenue, Workington, banded together to give the street’s older generation a gift they would remember.

Proud mum of two, Trish Heron got a selection of residents involved with her plan, and worked together to create decorated boxes of fruit and veg to distribute throughout the street.

With the help of youngsters aged from two to 14 using their pocket money to buy the harvest festival food, a total of 17 baskets were made up and handed out.

And last Friday evening, the team of “about 13 kids and six parents” was formed, heading out at 8.30pm to deliver their gifts to houses up and down the street.

“Some people were really surprised,” Trish said. “One woman said ‘I haven’t heard of people celebrating the harvest festival for years’, which made us really glad we’d done it.”

Trish was joined by her 13-year-old daughter Aleesha Graham and 11-year-old son Brandon Graham, who were “a bit nervous and reluctant at first”, but soon found their feet after the first few deliveries.

“I’m so proud of them all – they absolutely loved it!” she said. “All the kids were so happy to take part, and it was just a really nice night.

Explaining why she decided to organise the street-wide harvest festival, Trish said: “Our street is notorious for anti-social behaviour, but there are good kids on the street, so we wanted to come together and do something good to let them really shine.”

And their kindness certainly shone, as Trish says the team have received praise and “lovely” comments from people who were touched by the gesture.

She said: “The kids are all already asking when we can do it again!

“We need to bring back old traditions like the harvest festival – they’re a really nice way of getting kids out and about, away from their phones and helping people.”

The group are hoping to put together similar boxes for Halloween and Christmas, and can’t wait to share their gifts with the street again.