Summer Fun Day

Saturday 25th June was the date set for our summer fun day and the weather for the few days before had been incredibly hot. Forecasters were predicting some rain over the weekend but we were blessed with a sunny day and comfortable temperatures.

As ever, a lot of hard work went on in the background for this event with people collecting goods to be sold, cakes being made, stalls being set up and food and drink purchased for the BBQ and hall.

At the 11am starting time everyone prepared for the usual initial rush but for some reason, it didn’t work that way this year. Throughout the day people wandered along, attracted by the brilliant brass band playing in the back field and whilst things normally quieten down at around 1.30pm, this year the event went on much longer with the BBQ was still selling burgers and sausages at 2.30pm.

The ‘splash the vicar’ stall was popular as ever although I did seem to notice Steve Thorpe taking the brunt of the wet sponges. Something a little different this year was that visitors were prepared to pay to splash their friends and of course we were happy to oblige!

As ever the cake stall was incredibly successful and who can turn down the chance to buy one of the home made cakes that you see as soon as you enter the hall? The book stall, toy stall and white elephant stall had many visitors and our raffle was a popular addition to our normal tombola stall and the name the duck competition. Annie’s face painting attracted many youngsters who came away with a variety of designs on their faces.

The craft and messy play areas on the back field were very popular and the design a hat competition on a circus theme was a great success.

Wendy oversaw the bouncy castle during the fun day and for some unexplainable reason then carried on doing the same during the evening as the Highlanders had one of their infamous ‘sleepovers’, - never was a term so wrongly described!

A number of fun day visitors made their way into the church and saw the displays that had been set up, lit candles and found peace with someone on hand to talk with, if they wanted to do so.

The John Bramston Gym club gave a great display and the Irish dancers plus our own dancers were very popular with family, friends and casual visitors alike.

I think we would all like to express our thanks to Jill James for volunteering to take over the management of the event and I’d like to thank Barbara May for helping me count the proceeds as well as my mum who helped double check the proceeds during the evening! We all had a great deal of fun.

The aim of the event was to open ourselves up to the local community and to try to raise additional funds towards our kitchen refurbishment project. I think it can be judged as a success in both respects. We managed to raise the net sum of £991.35 from the fun day and the 20 estate agent boards that were put up in people’s gardens.

Above all, these events certainly help to reinforce the bonds of friendship amongst the church family and also present an opportunity to all those who visited us to come again. Our programme this year outlined all the youth activities that take place in the church and hall throughout the week, so hopefully we may have sown the seeds for future community involvement in what we do.