I wanted to take this opportunity to personally thank everyone for their help and support of this year’s Summer Spectacular held on Saturday 15th July 2023.
The day was a great success as we still managed to attract a good footfall of residents, despite all the pesky rain showers and strong winds!
We were blessed to have the Majorettes open our event with a march into our event arena. The beat of their drums and intricacy of routines was a perfect way to kick off the day. My thanks go to the performers, their families and friends for turning up to support their children.
Shortly after this, we had the fun family dog show and what a crowd puller that was! We saw owners bring their four-legged companions along to try and win a rosette and cuddly toy. The event was overseen by one of our wonderfully talented Memory Café volunteers Keren Price and the prizes were kindly donated by Thameswood Veterinary Clinic. I had a great time judging the categories, with lots of audience participation, and I was thrilled to see so many dogs (and their owners) enjoying their toys and rosettes awarded.
During the day we saw brilliant demonstrations from BEST – Be A Better You who also a ran penalty shootout, football skills and boxing taster sessions throughout the day. BEST and The Kelly Foundation are the two charities chosen by the Council this year to help raise awareness of their great causes and to raise much needed funds. I will have a fundraising total of how much we raised to share with you very soon.
Craig Hiscock the Operations Manager at ‘BEST – Be A Better You’ told us “We really enjoyed attending the Summer Spectacular. We really felt part of the community. Lots of children tried boxing for the first time and were very interested in attending the summer sessions in Haydon Wick”.
John Stooke, Founder of The Kelly Foundation said “Despite the weather, we met a number of people who were interested in engaging with the charity in different ways, thanks for inviting us … and the samosas were great!”
Along with the entertainment, wellbeing talks and lovely stalls, there was a wonderful variety of food on offer. From the delicious hog roast, food from around the world, yummy ice creams, sweets, cake sale from the 1st Haydon Wick Guides and so much more…
I was so happy to be a part of this event and I did my part in raising some funds for both of our charities by putting myself in the stocks and having wet sponges thrown at me!
It was a real shame that we had to bring the day’s programme to an early close because we missed out on delivering some magical outdoor yoga and hearing some uplifting entertainment from our local church gospel choir, jazz band and specially chosen entertainer…so until next time! To this end, everyone I have spoken to enjoyed the event and they would like us to repeat it every year, so watch this space!
My heartfelt thanks again go out to all of our Team, Councillors, Sponsors, Suppliers, and Volunteers who, without all of your help and support, means we wouldn’t have delivered such a successful event.
Myself and the Council look forward to working with you again in the future.
Best wishes.
Cllr Vinay Manro
Chairman of the Council
Haydon Wick Parish Council
