On Friday 5th November Karen went to Birchensale Middle School where she enjoyed the school’s Celebration Assembly. This was followed by an introductory conversation and Q&A session with the Year 8 pupils about being a Member of Parliament and the school’s future visit to the Houses of Parliament before a tour of this fantastic school by Head Hilary Dowding. Karen is pictured with Year 8.

Karen Lumley MP for Redditch County met with Warren Gray, Sales Director of MCS and his team.  Karen was keen to learn that the family business MCS is at the centre of manufacturing excellence. They have been producing precision engineered components in Redditch since 1986 when the company was founded by Warrens Father, Mr Jim Gray.

The substantial CNC machining centre facility fully compliments the conventional multi-spindle machining capability. Karen was impressed to see that MCS was not just another engineering company and said “It is people, equipment and a positive ‘can do’ philosophy, which means they enjoy working with their customers along with providing machining solutions. MCS is an excellent Redditch based company”.

Warren Gray said “It is our enthusiasm that we believe sets us apart from the rest. We currently employ 27 people and are constantly looking for appropriately skilled staff.”

Karen is pictured with Michelle Phipps and Warren Gray.

Karen Lumley, MP Redditch County, along with Sajid Javid, MP Bromsgrove, recently handed in shoeboxes filled with goodies for the Support Our Soldiers (SOS) shoebox appeal to get festive parcels to UK servicemen and women serving in Afghanistan. Their contribution will be added to the growing numbers of shoeboxes which will be sent out to the 700 soldiers in the battalion allocated to the people of Redditch & Bromsgrove.

Karen said: “I hope my shoebox will bring some pleasure to a brave soldier at Christmas when we will be at home with our families and they are working so hard to protect us all in Afghanistan.”

This year SOS is hoping to send out almost identical parcels which do not contain any toiletries and the closing date for parcels in Bromsgrove and Redditch is Monday November 8. Parcels can be dropped off at The Standard’s offices: 44 High Street, Bromsgrove, or Webb House, Church Green East, Redditch.

Organisers are on the lookout for the following items to place in each parcel: one small tin of fruit cocktail, one small tin of cream, a bag of nuts, a bag of boiled sweets, a pair of socks, a bag of crisps, Pre-packed cakes or apple pies (with a long shelf-life), a small wrapped Christmas present, chewing gum and other small Christmassy items, such as lollipops. Senders are also urged to include a Christmas card for the soldier and the packages should not be wrapped, as they need to be verified before being wrapped and sent.

For more on the scheme, e-mail: maria@supportoursoldiers.co.uk

Karen recently met with Dermot O’Leary who is a President of the Young Peoples Trust for the Environment (YPTE), as well as the presenter of X-Factor, a charity which aims to encourage young people’s understanding of the environment and the need for sustainability.  More information is available on their website, www.ypte.org.uk Shown here are Karen and Dermont along with Naomi Wilkinson, former presenter of Channel 5’s flagship childrens’ programme “Milkshak”e and the current presenter of BBC’s Live ’n’ Deadly.

Karen Lumley MP and Cllr Carole Gandy witnessed pupils from schools across Redditch take on a marathon challenge recently against competitors from not only the UK but the rest of the world.

A team of 32 pupils from middle schools across the town took part in the Third International Marathon Relay which saw them run continuously around the track at the Abbey Stadium to complete the marathon distance of 26 miles 385 yards, with each team member running up to 1,400 metres. At the same time schoolchildren across the UK, Spain, Ireland and Canada were also running the distance.

Not only was each team aiming to beat the others, but they were also bidding to beat the world records of 2hrs 3mins 59scs set by Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopa and Britain’s own Paula Radcliffe who ran the marathon in 2hrs, 15mins, 25scs.

Team Redditch did themselves proud finishing third in England, sixth out of 14 teams overall and beat Paula’s record in a time of 2hrs, 6mins, 23scs. They were rewarded with medals presented by Redditch MP Karen Lumley. Karen said “It was a great honour for Redditch and for the young people running in it.”

The overall winner was team Castellon from Spain which smashed the event record with a time of 1hr, 59mins, 33scs. The event was organised by the Amateur Athletic Association with the help of the Redditch School Sport Partnership.

Karen Lumley MP recently met with her constituent Stevan Walton who won TWO Gold Medals at this year’s Commonwealth Games for shooting – a fantastic achievement to be celebrated in the constituency and something to be immensely proud of.

Karen was fascinated to learn of Stevan’s Commonwealth Games experience and his triumph over all the other nations, yet was saddened to learn that despite Stevan’s achievements at the Games and his potential to be a success in the 2012 Olympics he is struggling to obtain any sponsorship or funding to enable him to meet the training requirements needed to go for Gold once again.

Anybody wishing to learn more about how to help Stevan on his way to potential Olympic glory can do so by contacting a member of Karen Lumley’s team on 01527 591334

Karen Lumley MP recently met with Sarah Whitehead, Prince’s Trust Team Programme Executive and the rest of her team to celebrate their 20th anniversary.

“Team” is the organisation’s flagship 12-week personal development programme offering work experience, qualifications, practical skills and community projects. Karen was delighted to have the opportunity to see their work with young people from the constituency and hear the Truth About Youth.

Team members presented their experiences on the “Team” programme so far and outlined their future plans. They also talked about their ambitions for the future and any barriers they have faced or expect to face.  This was followed by a Q&A session with Karen and those young people present who were interested to learn how Karen got to where she is now and that she too had faced difficult hurdles to reach her goal.

The Prince’s Trust is a youth charity that helps change young lives.  They give practical and financial support, developing key workplace skills such as confidence and motivation.  They work with 14 to 30-year-olds who have struggled at school, have been in care, are long-term unemployed or have been in trouble with the law.

Of the 44,049 young people the Prince’s Trust helped last year, more than three in four moved into work, education or training which is extremely positive.

Karen is pictured with Karla Hammersely and Brandon Weaver.

Karen Lumley recently met with Rose Humphries and Anita Harris from POhWER, one of the largest advocacy providers in the UK, to receive their response to a Government white paper on health.

POhWER provides advocacy services to a wide range of service users, from all communities, in any setting, including highly specialised settings.

Karen said: “I accepted POhWER’s response to the Health White Paper on Friday and met with representatives from the organisation. I was very impressed with the work that they do.  I also got to meet Rita, a Redditch resident who had used their services. She explained to me just how important it is that we have organisations like this in our country.”

Tesco Redditch Extra welcomed Karen Lumley and four local schools to the store to celebrate the success of this year’s Tesco For Schools and Clubs scheme. Local schools and clubs are set to receive lots of fantastic new equipment this term.

In 2010, in direct response to the needs of schools and clubs across the UK, Tesco amalgamated Computers for School and Sports for Schools and Clubs to create Tesco for Schools and Clubs – one catalogue containing thousands of pieces of equipment and resources across the entire curriculum for primary and secondary schools and clubs to get what they really need.

From the 1st March to the 9th May, shoppers in the local area received vouchers which they donated to a school or club of their choice. These schools and clubs were then able to choose what equipment they wanted from the catalogue – from paints and canvases to cricket bats, digital cameras, computer software and recycling bins.

Cath Hill, Customer Service Manager at Redditch Extra Tesco said, ‘Tesco for Schools and Clubs is a scheme which my team are proud to be part of. Thousands of customers have been collecting vouchers to help their local schools and clubs get this new equipment showing what can happen when a whole community gets involved.”

Schools represented were Webheath First School (Isabelle Moores and Thomas Canter), Mount Carmel First School (Charlie Trainor and Alexia Rice), Vaynor First School (Kian Reeves and Meisha Baylis) and Harry Taylor First School (Spencer Burson and Nicole Clews).

Karen Lumley, MP for Redditch attended the Civic Sunday services in Redditch.  There she met with with Amna Faham and Sarijida Khan.

Also attending were Cllr Juliet Brunner and Mayor Kath Banks.