Community champion awarded British Empire Medal

JUST reading about Ripon Grammar School past pupil Caroline Bentham’s extensive volunteering work is enough to make most normal mortals feel exhausted.

Yet the energetic mother-of-two thought it was a mistake when she received a letter telling her she was to be awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to the community in Ripon.

“I was saying to myself is this real? Why me? I don't do anything extraordinary.

“The letter asked if I wanted to accept the BEM, and I must admit to thinking about it for a day or two, because I don't think I deserve it, really.

“But then I thought about who could have nominated me and decided I needed to accept for them and everyone else who volunteers with me.”

Caroline, who left RGS in 1982, founded Waste Not Wednesdays, which takes supermarket waste food and turns it into affordable meals and is based in the city's Community House.

She also volunteers with Girlguiding UK and is chair of Friends of Spa Gardens, which organises Ripon’s annual Winter Wonderland event.

In addition to this, Caroline set up a scrap metal fund for community projects, launched and chaired the Ripon Men’s Shed project and helps out with Ripon Triathlon and Ripon Runners clubs.

She has achieved all of this despite the challenge of her husband, Gary, suffering from kidney failure: “He relies on a home haemodialysis to keep himself well. This is very tying for him, he has five or six sessions a week, which means we don't get to go away on holiday or anything.”

Known as Caroline Barker at school, she studied catering at college after RGS: “I had my family at a young age and went back to work as a school cook when they went to school themselves.”

Having been promoted to head cook at RGS, she went on to run her own Sun Parlour Café, in the Spa Gardens.

Caroline returned to RGS once again to teach an adult evening cookery class in her old domestic science room, where she taught one of her former maths teachers: “It’s amazing how long it takes to call one of your teachers by their first names!” she says.

She describes her Waste Not Wednesdays project, which runs from 12pm to 1.30pm and caters for around 50 people each week, as like the BBC TV's cooking game show Ready, Steady Cook.

“It was started four years ago by me, Suzanne Bower the manager of Community House at the time and Caroline King, another staff member, to save food from going in the bin.”

“Not only are we helping the local community, but we are also helping the planet by reducing food waste,” says Caroline. “We make all sorts of tasty meals, from roast dinners and curries to rice dishes and chilli con carne.”

“Everyone who comes - and it can be anyone at all; it's not a food bank - pays £4 and takes away eight items along with bread and veggies if we have them.

“We have a variety of customers from those who need a little stretch to their budget, people who live on their own and welcome a ready-made meal for one, those who think it's a great idea for saving food and those who just come to have a night off from cooking.

“The whole project wouldn't happen without the other volunteers, there are four wonderful ladies who help me in the kitchen and a team who help serve and another team who do the collections from the supermarket and a couple of ladies who sort everything out, making sure it’s all stored and labelled correctly. So, as you can see a massive team not just me.”

As assistant county commissioner for North Yorkshire West Guides, Caroline has also been instrumental in a campaign to raise £500,000 to rebuild a rundown community activity centre.

The Birk Crag Centre, just outside Harrogate, is used by Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers from the North Yorkshire West region.

“We are still fundraising for the upstairs to be completed and would welcome any donations or offers to fundraise.”

More importantly, she says, she has been a unit Guider with a Guide group in Ripon for about 40 years: “I love seeing the girls grow and mature, try new things and learn important skills. I can't tell you enough about how much the girls get from it.

“Again, there is a team around me, and we all work to our strengths, we wouldn't function as well as we do without everyone doing their bit. If you were ever a Rainbow, Brownie or Guide, think about coming back to help a different generation prepare themselves for their future, it's really good fun for us adults too.”

Regarding the increasingly popular illuminated Winter Wonderland Ripon community event, which attracts around 2,000 visitors over a weekend, with lots of free activities, she says: “Yet again there is a team who put the event on, help out over the days it's on, and before and after. We would love more people to get involved with this too, so if you have a few hours spare over the event weekend, let me know.”

The event costs about £8,000 a year and relies on sponsorship and donations: “It can be expensive taking kids to events, particularly at this time of year, but there is nothing to spend money on here except the refreshments.”

Although she has recently stepped down as chair of the Ripon Men's Shed, she’s confident that it will continue to thrive: “I only stepped down because of there are a wonderful group of guys at the shed, who can take it into the future with gusto.

“The idea came about by looking at some of the customers who came to my cafe and feeling it was something that would benefit them. I got together with some others who thought the same and we started to look for premises.

“The Men's Shed is now well established in what used to be the New Life Church on Water Skellgate. It's a massive success story that I am proud to be a part of, check them out if you don't know about it.”

Caroline set up the scrap fund, where donations of scrap metal taken to Anderson K A Metal Recyclers are turned into cash and given out to community projects, to help small groups.

“We have given out about £5,000 altogether and anyone can help boost this fund by taking unwanted or waste metal there to recycle, including all the drinks cans and food cans that you normally put in the recycling bin.”

She also helps out with the local Ripon Triathlon Club and Ripon Runners: “I have helped with catering for some of the events like the Round Ripon Ultra and the Triathlon weekend. 

"This has tied Waste Not Wednesday together with the events by using some of the food items from the one community project to help the cost of another volunteer-led event. Win, win all round,” she says.

And, as if this is not enough, Caroline also tries to find the time to keep fit, taking on half Ironmans, a marathon and Hyrox events: “Not bad for someone who never, ever ran round the 400m track in one go and walked every cross country ‘run’ in games lessons!”

Her two children, Martin, an electrician, and Lorraine, an NHS psychologist, left RGS in 2000 and 2004 respectively: “I am very proud of them both,” she says.

Q: Who was your favourite teacher at RGS?

A:Mrs Allinson, who taught biology. I loved biology anyway but when I was 14 I had the opportunity to go to America for the whole of the summer holidays on my own to stay with the family of a Girl Scout I had met the previous year. I was going to miss the first few days of the September term and the head at the time said I couldn't have the time off, that school was important. I remember Mrs Allison sticking up for me and I vividly remember her saying: "She will learn more in those few days in the States than she will getting a new timetable and backing books at school, give her permission." I went and yes, I learned a lot, 45 years later we are still friends too.

Q: Who inspired you when you were at school?

A: I was inspired by Mrs Janet Rich, a games teacher. She was sort of tasked with PE for those who weren't good enough to play hockey. She made me captain of the netball team and encouraged me. She was also my Guide leader out of school and was very influential in where I’ve got to in Guiding now. I asked her many years after I left school why she made me captain and she said: "Because you can organise others." I think that's what i do now...

Q: What’s the one piece of advice you’d give current students?

A: ‘Don't have your life mapped out, either by your own doing or the wishes of others, see what happens and where different steps take you, you never know what you might find that becomes your passion or career and mix with lots of different people in different settings.