WISH Cumbria Winter Newsletter

In September WISH Cumbria held an event, Inspirational Women in Property – Achieving Personal and Professional Success. This was held at the scenic Penrith Rugby Club with the Cumbrian fells as our backdrop, a perfect location for members to hear from two incredibly successful Cumbrian business women working in property.  WISH Cumbria hoped our guests were inspired and motivated in their own career journeys; feedback gave an overwhelming yes!

Christmas came early for the WISH Cumbria group as we celebrated with a Gin Tasting evening in Kendal on Friday 16th November.  We joined together with South Lakes Housing for the event which was held at the impressive new clubhouse at Kendal Rugby Club.
Andrew our Gin Expert for the evening from Majestic Wines, Kendal, taught us about the history of gin making and the interesting backgrounds of the different gins on offer including the local Lakeland Moon Gin.

SEPTEMBER EVENT – Inspirational Women in Property – Achieving Personal and Professional Success

Our September WISH Cumbria meeting was held at the scenic Penrith Rugby Club with the Cumbrian fells as our backdrop, a perfect location for members to hear from two incredibly successful Cumbrian business women working in property.  WISH Cumbria hoped our guests would be inspired and motivated in their own career journeys; feedback gave an overwhelming yes!

Our wonderful speakers included Sally Fielding, who is founder and Managing Director of Sally’s Cottages.  Sally started her holiday cottages letting agency in 2003 with just 1 cottage and £1000 to set up, she now has over 340 cottages and had takings of £4.5 million last year.  Our other brilliant speaker was Rachel Ritson, Managing Director of Grisedales a successful property agent in Cumbria.  Rachel joined Grisedales in 2000 as a part time accounts manager, she took the business by storm, her responsibilities growing as the business did and she became full owner in 2016.

It was evident that both speakers have created successful businesses due to their enthusiasm, resilience and integrity whilst also balancing their family and personal life.  They both have an incredible passion for what they do and stressed how important it is to push yourself and to never stop learning to develop yourself and your business.

We have been overwhelmed by the incredible feedback we have received from those attending our recent events; here are just a few comments from our Women in Property afternoon:

 ‘The speakers were hugely engaging and truly inspirational… I came away with many helpful ideas, particularly about working practices and work-life balance. A very motivating afternoon.’

‘Have met some new very inspirational women and learnt that we should take a chance and be brave.’

‘The stories from these inspiring and successful women are really encouraging and motivating.  We should work with integrity and never stop learning as it’s the key to development of ourselves and our work.’

CHRISTMAS EVENT

Christmas came early for the WISH Cumbria group as we celebrated with a Gin Tasting evening in Kendal on Friday 16th November. We joined together with South Lakes Housing for the event which was held at the impressive new clubhouse at Kendal Rugby Club.

Andrew our Gin Expert for the evening from Majestic Wines, Kendal, taught us about history of gin making and the interesting backgrounds of the different gins on offer including the local Lakeland Moon Gin.  The wild juniper and botanicals which are blended to create the delicious Lakeland Moon are gathered from the Lakeland Fells under a full moon as it’s believed the strong moon entices all the goodness from the ground into the plants.  We then got tasting, learning the very best combinations with 8 tasty gins, mixers and perfect accompaniments including pomegranate, ginger and even fiery red chilli’s.  There were clear favourites for everybody attending who then battled it out in our exciting auction for the remaining gin from the evening.

We also held a raffle on the evening to raise additional funds for two local charities, Cumbria Community Foundation Winter Warmth Appeal and Manna House in Kendal.  Hundreds of older people in Cumbria are in danger of becoming ill or even dying because of the cold. The Winter Warmth Appeal is saving lives by raising funds and awareness of fuel poverty in Cumbria. Manna House provides a community of support to meet the physical, social and emotional needs of people who are homeless of vulnerably housed in South Lakeland.

Kentdale Land Rover in Kendal very kindly sponsored the event.

NEW BOARD MEMBERS:

We have a new chair in place at WISH Cumbria as Caroyln Greenhalgh sadly had to stand down from the position due to work commitments. Beth Nicholls, from a local contractor PPM Limited, who works with a large number of local Cumbrian Housing Associations, Councils and private clients in the area has now taken over as Chair.  We have also welcomed a new member to our board; Louise Jeffery who is Housing Needs & Policy Officer at Eden District Council.

2018

You can follow us on Twitter @WishCumbria and visit WISH Cumbria Events page to keep up to date with our 2018 events calendar which will be published early in the New Year.

If you would like to join our region then please visit:  www.wishgb.co.uk or email: [email protected]

We look forward to meeting you soon!