THE organisers of an annual village festival have won an award in recognition of their efforts to bring different generations together.

The Friends of Sadberge Village Festival was presented with the outstanding community achievement award by the County Durham Community Foundation (CDCF), a grant-making body that has supported the festival.

The festival organisers were recognised for two projects they run outside the summer event, called Make a Difference Day, held around Halloween, and a Christmas dinner for members of the Sadberge Older Age People Group.

Millie Scaife, one of the organisers, said this year's Make a Difference Day had seen 20 youngsters aged between five and 15 gather together to create small craft gifts and fudge to present to village residents who might not receive many visitors on a regular basis.

She added: "We've been doing this for about eight years now and some of the children who started with us back then are 14 and 15 now and they work with the younger ones to help them with the tricky bits.

"The children also help out with the Christmas dinner and run the raffle and take people's coats before they sing a few songs for the residents. It's an absolute pleasure - it's hard work for everyone but it's worth it."

The Sadberge Festival has received two grants from CDCF in recent years, which were used to buy adequate seating for the festival and support other community activities such as Sadberge in Bloom, as well as the two youth projects.