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West Kirby's Christmas Lights are under threat unless a new committee can be formed.
The volunteers work tirelessly every year to secure enough donations to maintain, repair, replace and install the lights around the town every year and, until last year, also organised an annual lights switch-on outside the Concourse.
However, several members have retired or stepped down in recent years, and now the chair, Rachel Kehoe, has announced she is unable to continue due to increasing work and travel commitments. As a result the current committee is being disbanded.
An appeal has been made for anyone who is interested in chairing or joining the committee to attend a special meeting on Wednesday 22 July at 7.30pm, at the Ring O'Bells pub.
In a statement, West Kirby Christmas Lights said: "For many years, we’ve been incredibly fortunate to have a dedicated and stable Christmas Lights Committee, made up of amazing volunteers who have given countless hours of their time and energy to bring festive cheer to our community.
"Over the past two years, several committee members have retired or stepped down, leaving the committee with too few volunteers to continue delivering the Christmas lights display.
"Despite recent appeals on social media, unfortunately we haven’t received any enquiries from people interested in joining the committee.
"With the committee now no longer having enough members to continue, we have collectively taken the difficult decision to disband the current committee, with all remaining members stepping down together.
"We want to reassure everyone that this doesn’t have to mean the end of our village Christmas lights.
"We have a tried-and-tested fundraising formula that has successfully funded the display year after year, and we will happily pass on all of our knowledge, materials and experience to a new committee.
"We are also more than willing to offer advice and support to help a new team get established.
"If you’re interested in helping to keep this much-loved community tradition going, we’re holding an informal meeting on Wednesday 22nd July at 7.30pm in the upstairs private room at the Ring O’ Bells.
"Whether you’d like to join or form a new committee, or simply find out what’s involved, we’d love to see you there.
"If you can’t make the meeting but would like to chat, please get in touch and one of the current committee members will be happy to speak with you.
"We sincerely hope a new group of volunteers will come forward to continue this wonderful tradition for our community."
Photo credit: Jonathan Cooper Photography
