Community Party
Yesterday, May 13th, was a glorious sunny day and we certainly couldn’t have picked a better afternoon for a community party.
A chance for neighbours to get together, have some fun and learn more about the community group – who’s involved, what it’s been up to, how it raises and spends money and how people can get involved. The community group needs to have a meeting every year to tell people what it’s been up to, but why have a meeting when you can have a party!
This was another party that was organised in the Thursday morning social space. Brenda had sourced the magician and the balloon modeller who entertained both kids and adults.
Sam booked Ryan to sing and made the food for the day, Lisa face painted and Vicky provided the arts and helped with brews.
Gill decorated the hall with bunting, Victoria and Jo weeded, and Lisa gave out the tickets for food.
Angela set up the inflatable sofa area where people could learn more about the group and decide if they want to get more involved, and Mervyn chatted with people who were interested in learning more about the group.
Phil set up the recycled bike area and children loved trying them out along the garden paths. In fact, Phil helped Ava learn to ride a bike without stabilisers on the day, and four more bikes found their way to new homes. Phyll, one of the local councillors kept us company on the sofa, and had contributed £500 towards the cost of the party, and Dave, one of our newly elected councillors came to say hello.
It was a great afternoon. We chatted with a good number of local people who hadn’t been involved before, some who said they’d been thinking about joining in for a while and had decided to take the step. They said they’d be back, which is always lovely to hear. Offering a warm welcome is something this community is good at.
There were six members of the organising group at the party, five who are staying involved – Victoria, Mervyn, Jo, Gill and Angela, and Rachel, the sunflower seed sharer, who will be stepping back for now. There was a couple more members that couldn’t make it on the day. We’d already said goodbye to Lianne, Miki, Amanda and Ian before the party. The great news though is that we received 7 new nominations, mainly from people who have been getting up to great stuff in the community and lucky for this community have just the skills this community needs. We’re looking forward to welcoming Ben, Phyll, Sandra, Phil, Vicky, Lisa and Sam into the organising group at the after party.
May has most definitely been a marvellous month in the community and we’ll be finishing it off with two community led play days in the May half term – a Safari themed day on Tuesday 30th May at St Annes Community Centre from 11-3 and then a Community Play Day at St Andrews School on Thursday 1st June from 11-3.