THERE can be no doubt that the revival of Addingham Gala has been one of the Wharfe Valley's success stories of recent years. The committee, under the stewardship of Rebecca Carter, has done a wonderful job in creating a truly heart-warming event of which the village can be rightly proud.

It was only to be expected that Mrs Carter would be stepping down at some point as chairman after such a run of unqualified success and everyone will wish her well for the future, especially as she has agreed to carry on helping as a member of the committee instead of its head.

This is now the job of Angela Hutton. Although a relatively newcomer to Addingham, the busy mum has agreed to spend a lot of her free time helping to keep alive one of its admirable traditions. For that she deserves more than just thanks because she cannot do the job with the help solely of a small committee of dedicated volunteers. People should not forget that the future of the Gala is not assured and its continuous existence is dependent on attracting enough assistance to keep it going. Apathy led to its demise once before and a similar lack of people willing to put their shoulder to the wheel could produce the same result.

As the committee members will be the first to admit, the hardest task is not what has to be done to organise the Gala and ensure its smooth running on the day, it is attracting enough people willing to give up a small part of their time to help. Mrs Hutton has stepped forward, it is now time for others to join her. It may be trite to resurrect the old saying: Many hands make light work' but it is particularly apt in this situation.

If the Gala again faded away, the village would be full of people bemoaning its demise and complaining about a lack of community spirit. If only one-tenth of those people were willing to put their names forward to contribute, it would ensure the event's future for many years to come.