An Upbeat Poem by Sam Thorogood

Upbeat is a place where people matter.

I knew it as I stepped into Saint Chads one rainy evening,

Was offered a tea and a seat for volunteer training,

And heard how this ragtag group of people

Were bringing heaven to Normanton.

Upbeat is a place where people matter.

I felt it when I started Welcome Box visits.

Nervous at first, but quickly put at ease

By the kindness of strangers

Who didn’t stay strangers for long.

Upbeat is a place where people matter.

Where the most loving staff opened their arms

To a recent graduate working his first real job.

You have been there as I have navigated my early twenties,

Walked with me through the hope and heartbreak of that time.

Upbeat is a place where people matter.

Where Monday mornings are not sleepy starts to the week

But rather Elliot’s joyous ‘HELLO’ at Overdale’s door.

Where people can come and just be. Not as refugees,

Stats or case studies, but as people.

Because Upbeat is a place where people matter.

Where creativity abounds, where learning happens,

Where tears sit alongside smiles, where there is no judgement,

Just a good coffee, a Costco pastry and maybe a slice of pizza

And that inexplicable, intangible sense of feeling at home.

Of course, these past months have been a far cry from all that.

And yet, creativity still abounds. Learning still happens,

Community still somehow flourishes.

And maybe it’s at times like these we realise

That Upbeat isn’t a building or an activity.

Upbeat is a place where people matter.

And that place might not always be visible.

It might be the text a volunteer sends

That reminds someone they are loved

When the world has painted them a very different picture.

It might be a precious moment between host and guest,

A Zoom call between Key Worker and family,

An honest supervision, a kind email.

We are God’s image-bearers and nowhere has shown me that more than Upbeat.

Upbeat is a place where people matter.