The fantastic STCA-Team are arranging a fundraising quiz to help raise money for the running of the St Thomas Festival. The St Thomas Festival is free to attend but the infrastructure required (facilities, security, insurance and structures) cost quite a bit of money. To keep it free, we are running lots of fun fundraising activities throughout the year. Come along to the quiz and have some fun playing along whilst raising some money for our lovely annual event.

This last weekend was a very busy one in St Thomas.

On Saturday night, the Exeter Male Voice Choir hosted a concert in the St Thomas Methodist Church. Here is a sample of their fantastic singing from our YouTube channel.

As another fantastic treat supporting them was our very own St Thomas-based singers, St Thomas Gospel Choir. Here is a sample of them on the night.

On Sunday, a group of amazing A-Team volunteers joined in with Bloom'In St Thomas to take part in the The Big Springclean, picking up litter around St Thomas. Following that, we went down to the St Thomas precinct to join the St Thomas branch of Exeter Food Fight to enjoy some free food and talk to others who were there enjoying what was on offer.

On Sunday evening, the St Thomas Community Association got together for a really successful March meeting. This month we had PCSO for St Thomas, Will Malcolm and Simon Lane from Exeter City Council and we discussed various things around the topic of anti-social behaviour in St Thomas and Exeter as a whole. It was interesting to hear their views and we learnt a lot about the strategies that the police and the council are putting in place to deal with anti-social behaviour in the city.

Next month's meeting will be focusing on youth work in St Thomas and what we can do to make our area of the city a better place for young people to live. The meeting is on Sunday 2nd April at 8pm in the St Thomas Methodist Church Lounge, Cowick Street.

STCA Chairperson, Kathy Rufolo talks about the STCA meeting, this Sunday...

"THIS MONTH we have invited Simon Lane of Exeter City Council to talk with us regarding strategies to deal with anti-social behaviour in the local area, particularly our parks and open spaces, where some of our community development work has been undone through vandalism. Do come and join us if you have any bright ideas on how to reduce such anti social behaviour or you would just be glad to get on board with any strategies that Simon and the group come up with.

I know that we have had some good discussions in this group regarding community centres and particularly youth work in St Thomas. This topic of reducing anti-social behaviour this month I think should lead on to a youth strategy focused meeting next month as these things are not unrelated I'm sure. Do come along this Sunday evening. Everyone is welcome."

Please join us on Sunday 5th March at 8pm in the St Thomas Methodist Church Lounge. Entrance to the right of the building.

This Sunday morning, the Bloom'in St Thomas group and our STCA Youth Coordinator, Joe Levy, are leading the St Thomas Big Spring Clean.

They say:
"As part of the Great British Spring Clean, we're having a big tidy up of St Thomas! We'll be clearing up litter to make our area safer and cleaner for wildlife and more pleasant for everyone. Every year, the RSPCA gets more than 5000 calls about wildlife caught up or injured in litter."

If you want to join in, meet at the entrance to St Thomas Pleasure Ground on Cowick Street on Sunday 5th March at 10am.

Today, I've created a new page on the website for information about local St Thomas community groups. I'd like to build this page up with info about more groups. If you'd like to have your group added to the page, please let me know by sending me an email through the Contact Us page.

So, finally the St Thomas Festival 2017 website is here. Head over to find out more information about the St Thomas Festival and how to apply for a stall, to perform on a stage, to volunteer or to run an activity. We're so excited about this year's festival and hope you are too!

I think we were all shocked last night to discover that the Riverside Leisure Centre in St Thomas has been quite seriously damaged by fire and will be shut for at least several months to come. Luckily, everyone was evacuated and there were no serious injuries.

The Express & Echo have done an article looking back at the history of the Riverside Leisure Centre. Click here to read it.

It is with great sadness that I pass on the following message.

Exeter City Council’s lead for Communities and Culture, Cllr Paul Bull, passed away last night.  Paul, 60, who was the councillor for St Thomas, had been battling cancer.

His wife Cllr Rachel Sutton, who serves on the council as lead for City Development and as Labour’s Group Deputy Leader, was by his side.
Labour Leader Pete Edwards said: “Paul was Mr Community. He was an extraordinary person – his kindness was unlimited. He was knowledgeable and talented in so many areas of life, but his real passion was serving the community here in Exeter. Simply put – this city is a better place for everything he did.

His passion, his beliefs and his commitment will carry on. All our thoughts are with Rachel and the family.”

It's great to be with you on our new website and this lovely blog.

I'm hoping to use this blog to keep everyone updated with things that are happening here in St Thomas, Exeter. If you have an event you'd like us to post in our event listings, please comment or send me a message through the Contact page.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Roz