Brad Ford Bears cost £7.99 each + posting & packing and all profits will go to the Lord Mayor’s Appeal.
To buy your Brad Ford Bear please contact Alexis in the Lord Mayor’s Appeal Office on 01274 434965 or send a message to us.
Civic Reception for children who took part in Hat Day
Wednesday 10th January.
The Lord Mayor thought that it would be nice to host a Civic Reception for some of the children who took part in the Hat Day in October. Two schools St Luke’s Church of England Primary School and Lidget Green Primary School each brought a small group of children. They told us all about their own Hat Day and it sounded from what they said that they had all been very busy making some weird and wonderful hats, including one which was a supermarket trolley filled with shopping! They all met the Lord Mayor and me and the Lord Mayor thanked them all for taking part and helping him to raise £1,249.00 on Hat Day. In typical City Hall style the hospitality extended to juice and biscuits fore everyone and then after learning a bit about the Appeal and fundraising from Alexis we all set off on a tour of City Hall, stopping off to catch up with Lord Mayor again in his Rooms where he gave all the children an ‘I’ve met the Lord Mayor’ badge and presented each school with a Certificate of Thanks. All the children asked lots of questions and seemed to enjoy their visit especially listening to the famous Wild Boar story which Alexis promised she would put on the web page. So if you want to find out why Bradford’s Coat of Arms features a Wild Boar see here but I warn you it’s a bit of grisly tale!
Spring Fayre Meeting
Monday 22nd January
I felt a bit odd at this meeting I am used to being the only bear at events but today I was the only male as I attended a meeting of the Spring Fayre Committee with the Lady Mayoress. Each year this group of women from faith and ladies group across the district come together with the Lady Mayoress to organise a Spring Fayre to be held in City Hall. For the past two years the Lord Mayor has been a woman so there has not been a Lady Mayoress. When Councillor Irene Ellison- Wood was Lord Mayor the event was called the Lord Mayor’s Spring Fayre and last year when Councillor Valerie Binney was Lord Mayor it was called ‘Donald’s Bit of Do’ after her husband and Consort Mr Donald Binney. The Lady Mayoress had met most of the ladies before because when she was the Deputy Lady Mayoress she had run an extremely popular Asian Food Stall at the fayre and everyone (especially the Lord Mayor’s Officers) was delighted to hear that she was hoping to do this again with the help of her friends.
This year the fayre will not be held until Thursday 10th May so it was decided that it would be called the ‘May Fair’ a play on Mayfair in London, and the ladies will dress up for the occasion accordingly, lots of bling, tiaras and fancy hats. It sounds as if there will be a great deal going on the day, I particularly liked the sound of Carol’s Confectionary Stall, the Café, organised by Bingley United Reform Church and the Fair-Trade Food & Wine Tasting by United Co-operatives but there will also be Tombola, Raffle, Plants & Flowers, Toiletries, Jewellery, Arts & Crafts, Candles & Gifts, a £2 Stall and much more. The May Fair will open at 10am and close at 2.30pm and admission is just 50p so I hope that lots of you will come along and support the Lady Mayoress and the ladies at this lovely event.
Sponsored Lock Up
Tuesday 23rd January
As I am beginning to realise being the Lord Mayor’s Bear sometimes mean doing things that you would normally never do. A recent event was a classic case. In November Alexis received a call from a good friend of the Lord Mayor’s Appeal, The Honorary Recorder for Bradford, Judge Gullick who had had a good idea. Now I’ve come to learn in the past few months that ‘good ideas’ usually mean one of two things, wearing a silly outfit or doing something scary so forgive me if I was sceptical. Our friendly Judge thought it would be a great idea to get locked up in the Cells of the new Bradford City Centre Police Station, Trafalgar House, before it officially opened. Apparently a friend of His Honour had done exactly this is in Carlisle and through sponsorship raised money for charity. Needless to say Alexis thought it was a great idea and she and the Judge drew up a list of possible suspects to invite to take part in the event, this included a mix of local business people, healthcare professionals working on the Born in Bradford project, Rotarians from Calverley Rotary Club where Judge Gullick is a member (we know Calverley is in Leeds but we won’t tell anyone if you don’t!) and a few of celebrities and me. It seems that there was only me who was not excited at the thought of a night behind bars because thirteen people agreed to take part and a date of 23rd January, two days before the official opening of Trafalgar House was set.
On the 23rd January the ‘Prisoners’ met for dinner at the Hilton Hotel, everyone was in high spirits and looking forward if a little apprehensive about the night ahead. Some people had like Judge Gullick decided to make the experience as realistic as possible, others had come armed with sleeping bags, books and IPods and some as Steve McNamara later confessed had come totally unprepared! After Council Meeting the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress came across to meet everyone and to see us climb in to the Prison Van kindly provided by GSL at 9pm, the Lady Mayoress gave me a big hug and told me to be very brave. The prison van was very scary, everyone was locked in to a small compartment of their own, but I was allowed to go with Vicky because I was too small. Poor Vicky gets travel sick and she didn’t like the journey to the Police Station at all. It was really weird looking out of the tiny window, because they are blacked out everything looks funny colours and it was very difficult to work out where we were going. People asked questions like how we would escape if there was accident which was a bit worrying.
When we arrived at the police station we were met by Police Officer Chris Bowen and taken to the Custody Suite, first stop was the charge desk where we booked in and met the officers who would be on duty through the night. We had a tour of the facilities, most cells (apart from poor Steve’s) appeared to have their own toilets which was a relief, although none had toilet paper, this you had to ask for when you needed it. Some people volunteered to be breathalysed and the results were very interesting! We had a nosey in the interview rooms, were told about the different kinds of cells, learnt a little about fingerprinting and collection of DNA and were finally taken back to the desk to collect a very thin blanket each before been taken to our cells to be locked in. And then Billy Pearce arrived! He walked up to the counter, looked at the three police officers stood behind it and said in that unmistakable voice ‘fish and chips twice and a bag of scraps please.’ It was hilarious. Billy has been starring in the pantomime Aladdin since the beginning of December. I have been to see the show twice once with the Lady Mayoress and once with Alexis and I thought it was fantastic, Billy was so funny I laughed until my sides ached and the jugglers and magicians were so good that I clapped until my paws stung. Billy had very generously agreed to take part in the Lock Up by being arrested on stage at the Alhambra as the show finished, he was then ushered out of Stage Door and into a police car and brought to meet up with the rest of us. Meanwhile a team of volunteers from the Lord Mayor’s Appeal and Calverley Rotary Club were busy collecting donations from the audience leaving the theatre; if they collected over £500 we would release Billy so that the show could go on the next day. I am not sure if I was glad that they reached the target or not because I think that Billy would have kept us all entertained during the night but an hour later we got a call to say that they had collected enough money and Billy could be bailed.
By eleven o’clock Alexis and I were huddled up in our cell, now as you all know we have been having a very mild winter but the day before the Lock Up the temperature suddenly decided to plummet, snow was seen on the Pennines but thankfully didn’t land in Bradford. I am lucky I have a nice fur coat of my own and then a beautiful fur trimmed robe to keep me warm but everyone else, even those who had brought in sleeping bags were finding the cold unbearable. I hadn’t known what to expect of a 21st Century police cell and to be honest I was amazed at how little seemed to have changed from cells I had seen in TV programmes from the 1960’s. Everything was concrete, cold and hard, a slab with a thin plastic mattress on top, a large expanse of black floor and near to the door a stainless steel toilet. Alexis had opted to have her light out and her door locked and wound the large but not very warm blanket around herself and tried to settle down to get to sleep but it never happened the light coming through the window and the cold made sleep impossible.
At this point Alexis would like me to explain why as a life long Bradford Bulls fan she was wearing a Leeds Rhinos shirt for the Lock In, especially when Steve McNamara, the Bulls Coach, was in the next Cell. Alexis had been sponsored an additional £50 if she would wear it by two so called friends both Leeds fans, whilst it felt like a traitorous thing to do Alexis could not think of a better reason for getting locked up in Bradford than wearing a Rhinos shirt! And of course there is not much Alexis won’t do to raise money for the Appeal.
I managed to doze on and off but Alexis was still awake at 3am, 5am and 6am when one of the police officers came to wake everyone up (ha! ha!) with a cup of tea, Alexis who is normally very fussy and only drinks either Green Tear or Early Grey was so cold and fed up that she embraced the offered milky PG tips like it was a priceless treasure. At 7am the cell was unlocked and very bleary eyed we made our way back to the Charge Desk to meet up with everyone else, everyone was busy complaining about the cold and not many people had got much sleep but all whilst they couldn’t say that they had enjoyed the experience agreed that it was one that they would never forget and had that it had given them a great deal to think about. We returned to the Hilton in the prison van, it still felt the middle of the night, it was still dark outside, the City centre was deserted and the subdued mood of the ‘prisoners’ was very different from the high spirits of the night before.
Judge Gullick treat everyone to a very welcome Full English Breakfast and when I say full I mean full, I had toast and jam, bacon, sausages, eggs, black pudding, beans, tomato, mushrooms and hash browns all washed down with several cups of coffee which I hoped would help me to stay awake throughout the day, Alexis was sloping off home at lunchtime to go to bed but I had engagements to go to. Over breakfast we totted up how much the event had raised and were staggered to realise that between all of us and the collection at the Alhambra we had raised over £7,250.00 FANTASTIC!
The Lord Mayor’s Appeal would like to thank Judge Gullick for a wonderful idea, all the ‘prisoners’ who volunteered to get locked up especially Billy Pearce and Steve McNamara whose participation helped greatly with publicity, West Yorkshire Police, GSL, the Alhambra Theatre and Calverley Rotary Club and of course everyone who paid sponsorship or put money in a bucket.
Arabian Nights Civic Ball, Photo Call
Wednesday 24th January
The thing about been the Lord Mayor or the Lord Mayor’s Bear is that it doesn’t matter how late you get to bed the night before you have to be up and smiling and ready for engagements the next day. So despite having spent the night in the cells the following day I found myself at the Alhambra Theatre smiling for the camera as there was a photo call for the highlight of the Lord Mayor’s Appeal year, the Civic Ball.
This year the ball is ‘Arabian Nights’ and so the Lord Mayor had gone to the Alhambra to be photographed with the girls from the chorus of Aladdin who were all dressed in their harem and belly dancing costumes.
We are all getting very excited about this event which will be at the Hilton Hotel on Saturday 12th May, the event organisers Impress Events are putting together a wonderful theme for the event so that guests will feel as if they sat in a luxury Bedouin tent in the middle of the desert, the entertainment will have an eastern flavour and there will even be the chance to win a five night break for 2 in Dubai.
Tickets are £40 each follow this link if you want to book or find out more.
National Association of Civic Officers Meeting (NACO)
Thursday 25th January.
We are delighted that this year Bradford will host the 6th National Civic Officers’ Conference on the 15th & 16th March. This is an excellent opportunity to show off our City and what it has to offer and to promote our own Civic Office.
NACO is the National Association for people who work with Civic Heads it was formed to promote best practice in civic offices, improve the professional services to Mayors and Chairmen, improve training for civic staff, to establish a network for the exchange and information of ideas about civic ceremonial and other issues and promote knowledge of civic life at a national and local level. The Civic Office here in Bradford is well represented within the Association as several of the staff are members and both the Civic Affairs Manager and our Diary Secretary are on the Executive Committee.
The meeting on the 24th & 25th January was planning for the conference in March and I was delighted to be introduced to everyone (some people even bought there own Brad to take back to their own offices) and look forward to meeting many more civic officers from around the country later in the year.
Our Diary Secretary here in Bradford is the Editor of the Association’s newsletter ‘Civic Street’ and in the next edition there will be a feature on me! I just hope he chooses a picture where I not wearing something silly as I would like to retain some dignity.
Keighley Charity Dinner at Azeem’s Restaurant
Tuesday 30th January
As you all know I like my food and I like nothing better than a nice curry so of course I was delighted when two friends of the Lord Mayor’s Appeal from Keighley, John Prestage and Charlie Bhowmick decided to organise a fundraising dinner at Azeem’s Restaurant in Keighley. I spent most of the evening with the Lady Mayoress because she is such good fun and very good at advising on me on what I would like best to eat. There was a good turnout with over 70 guests nearly filling the restaurant and helping John and Charlie to raise £500 for the Appeal. The food was lovely and the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress had a nice and relaxing evening. What was especially good was that four of the athletes from Bradford Sport & Recreation Association for People with Disabilities who will be representing Great Britain at the Special Olympics in Shanghai came to the dinner and told us about their training and showed us their medals and everyone agreed that it was helpful to be reminded about what the fundraising was for.
The Lord Mayor’s Appeal would like to thank John Prestage & Charlie Bhowmick for organising the event, everyone at Azeem’s Restaurant, the athletes from BSRAPD, their families and the people of Keighley for their support.
Our fury little mascots are still on sale and if you have bought a Brad of your own we would love to hear where he is and what he is getting up to. We know that there are Brads in Benidorm, Canada, New Zealand and Australia (see the picture posted of Brad surfing on Manley beach in Sidney) and one has even gone to Lancashire! So send us your stories and photo either via the webpage or to alexis.jenner@bradford.gov.uk
