The United Nations have officially declared 2025 to be the International Year of Co-operatives. Global co-operative leaders gathered in New Delhi late last year to celebrate the landmark announcement which will begin a 12-month celebration on how co-operatives build a better world.
Chelmsford Star Co-op has now been building a better Essex for 158 years. For the Society’s 150th celebrations in 2017, we marked the significant anniversary with an exhibition of our history at Chelmsford Museum. Opened by the Mayor and local dignitaries, it quickly became one of the museum’s most popular displays, with a photographical documentary on the Society’s history and time-line proving heart warming and nostalgic to many. The exhibition spawned Chelmsford Star’s second historical book, Chelmsford Star: 150 Years and Counting, which quickly sold out.
You can read a digital copy of the book for free here.
With interest in the Society still high, the Society’s Head of Membership and Marketing, Kevin Bennett, started presenting on the subject. Touring local WI, Rotary, church and historical groups, his Chelmsford Star: 150 Years and Counting slide-show presentation has kept interest in the Society’s long history – and all it has done for the people of Essex – alive over the last 8 years since the landmark anniversary. Most recently, the Chelmsford Civic Society, who attended one of Kevin’s presentations, offered to produce a documentary-style video of his talk to help mark the International Year of Co-operatives. After all, Chelmsford Star Co-op is a great example of why co-operatives build a better world.
You can view the presentation below.