What a great day! Courtesy of the Rotary Club of Colchester Centurion, over 600 wives, girlfiends, children and many soldiers who were about to be deployed to Afghanistan, came to the fun day and had a good time - some treating it as a ‘good bye’ celebration, others whose partners had already departed, as a day out where they could forget where their partner was.
The great thing was that everything was for free! The Rotary Club mustered huge support for the day with monetary donations coming in from the housing developers around the Garrison - Countryside Properties, Annington Homes and Taylor Wimpey were very generous as were local businesses such as Fenn Wright and Equity Insurance.
After Colchester Centurion’s Secretary had his van stolen with loads of presents from Boots destined for the wives and children’s Goody Bags, we received some good publicity from Essex County Standard and gifts rolled in.
Williams & Griffin sent a copy of the article to their suppliers and we received boxes of toys from Tomy. Diddl, Twilight Ponies, Usborne Books and Crayola and toiletries from Crabtree & Evelyn, Paul Smith and Kenneth Green plus bath salts and other items from Base Formula and Julie Foster Aromatherapy. Londis gave us sweets and there were many other donations that made up real ‘presents’ for each of the mums and children to take away.
There was a free raffle, sponsored by Bovis Homes, and star prizes were a Pamper day for two at Clarice House Spa and a beautiful bracelet donated by Mulberry Publications and a Nintendo DS for the kids - as well as dozens of other prizes.
Sodexo, who have the catering contract for the Garrison gave us use of the Musket Club and provided burgers, hot dogs, chips, drinks and ice cream whilst Indulgence Patisserie donated scrumptious desserts for everyone. We had two bands playing in the Club and beauticians from Colchester Institute painted nails, did hair and make up and generally pampered young girls and a few Mums.
And then there was the actual ‘fun’ of the fun day, climbing walls, huge slides, many bouncy castles, Gladiator Jousting, a Rodeo Bull, trampolines, face painting, caricatures, pets and a whole lot more - all for free.
It was delightful to see the smiles on the faces of the mums and children when they realised that they could spend the whole day on the rides – and get free candy floss and popcorn to eat as well.
We received many, many compliments and thanks from those who attended, some even in tears when they were talking to us. But as BBC Essex reported from one of the wives and which summed up what the Rotary Club of Colchester Centurion wanted to achieve - ‘This was a fantastic day just for us and on which the family could be together having fun and not having to think that during the following week, everything would change’.
For further information and any extra photographs, please contact Tony Willson 01206 366100 or e-mail tony@helmsmanservices.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment