HERE is the weekly column from Andrew Thomas.

Looking through last week’s The Westmorland Gazette I was struck by the large number of stories celebrating the achievements of local people and businesses.

The Lakes Distillery’s The Whiskymaker’s Reserve No.4 was awarded the World’s Best Single Malt award at the 2022 Whisky Magazine Awards in London, while Italian restaurant San Pietro in Windermere tasted success at the England Business Awards.

Ahmed Abdelaziz, who works with Windermere Lake Cruises overseeing self-hire boats, was one of the runners-up in the VisitEngland Tourism Superstar competition for 2022.

Flourishing Lake District minibus company The Mountain Goat is celebrating 50 years in business and, to mark the milestone, a thousand litres of a new beer - Golden Goat ale - has been specially brewed for the company by the microbrewery Bowness Bay Brewing in Kendal.

Thomas Gardner, 25, a film director from Windermere, has just released his debut short drama on YouTube. The Fronts of War is set during the First World War and includes some scenes shot in Keswick at Friar’s Crag.

Tom Woods, from Kendal, has created a literary website - Words Wild - to champion Cumbrian authors, past and present.

And then there is 12-year-old Gabriel Clark, who lives in Kirkby Lonsdale, who has a passion for woodwork. He launched an Instagram page to highlight his work and, by last week, it had garnered more than 220,000 followers.

His Instagram page shows he has now carved a wooden bowl - Gabriel’s Bowl for Ukraine - which will go to a randomly-selected donor at Easter.

To enter the draw, people need to donate some money to the Save The Children Ukrainian appeal.

When I last looked, the appeal had raised more than £64,000, with donations coming from all over the world - a fantastic achievement.

Meanwhile, Cumbria’s High Sheriff has hosted a special ceremony to recognise the tireless efforts of charities and volunteers in the county to enhance and enrich the places where they live.

It all goes to show that we are blessed in this area with people who are talented, successful and go the extra mile to help others.