A PAIR of siblings have been crowned Teesdale’s latest Young Heroes after giving up their Christmas Day to help bring cheer to the elderly.
Joshua and Seren Greenwell and their parents have been volunteering at Christmas Day lunches for four years and offer their musical services by singing and playing harp, violin and piano for residents at events. This year, the Barnard Castle family performed at Beaconsfield Care Home, in Barnard Castle, where a special lunch was organised by PCSO Preet Singh They also visited The Pathway in Middleton-in-Teesdale.
Preet was so impressed with Joshua, 12, and Seren, ten, that he nominated them both for the monthly award.
Preet said: “Joshua and Seren impressed me so much with their festive spirit and selflessness that I felt they really deserved to be nominated for the Young Hero award. Not many children would dedicate their Christmas Day to the service of others”
Parents Chris and Felicity Greenwell said they were proud of their children, who have been learning music since they were five. Mrs Greenwell said: “The children like to go and play where everyone likes to hear and they get great feedback from elderly residents. It’s lovely because they don’t think they are doing anything special so it’s great that they’ve been recognised.” The Young Heroes award scheme is a force-wide initiative designed to recognise young people who go above and beyond in their communities.
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
