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Queens Park
Christmas Fun Day 2011
An annual Christmas Fun Day took place on the
11th December 2011 at Hannakins Farm Community Centre, Queens
Park, Billericay. The project was funded by Fair Share Trust
Programme in Billericay (run by BBWCVS) and Hannakins Farm
Community Centre.
It was organised to give the children of Queens Park community a
fun festive day out to remember free of charge. A Christmas
fundraising goal was chosen Daisy Palmer Trust. Daisy suffers
from the incredibly rare and debilitating illness known as
Chronic Intestine Pseudo-Obstruction (CIPs). This means she
cannot eat anything at all orally, and is instead fully reliant
on being fed intravenously directly via her heart.
During the day many organisations such as Batias, Pavis
Foundation and Diabetes UK run stalls, fun games, information
sharing. All free activities included face painting, balloons,
indoors bouncy castle, arts and crafts, Christmas cookie
decorating, mini zoo, fancy dress competition, lots of free
presents and free buffet. Santa’s Grotto was also set up
offering professional photos with Santa. Facebook was used as a
huge source of publicity which attracted visitors even from
Southend on Sea. Pages like Essex Mum's Billericay.co.uk,
Kidstival were used to publisize the event, as well as posters
all around Billericay town, Sugacane store, Heart Radio, Essex
Radio, Maldon Essex and Essex pages.
The result was so many happy children and parents who joined the
fun and festive atmosphere at Hannakins Farm, 125 kids visited
the Santa in the Grotto, over 200 gingerbreads decorated. For
Daisy Palmer Trust a total of £328 was raised through donations
on the day and a special raffle with 6 big Waitrose Christmas
Hampers donated by Hemraj Goyal Foundation.
The success of the event has been mainly due
to the help and support from the Hannakins Farm Community
Centre, in particular Sharon Harvey and Kevin Eatherton.
Volunteers such as Colin, the chairman of West Billericay
Community Association, also helped during the set up of the
halls. Many helped preparing foods and drinks in the kitchen all
day and servicing drinks (Valerie Harvey, Lin, Jenny Saxby and
daughters), for which we are very thankful. Special thanks to
Jack Harvey for playing the role of Santa and seeing 125 kids in
the grotto. Jenny's sons also volunteered to wear the Disney
costumes.
We would also like to thank also Nicola Foley for providing all
the fun at the festive biscuit table and for making the
gingerbread trees herself in addition to providing most of the
sweets, toppings and icings, Grace Foley for being Santa's
assistant, Marie Whitworth for all her lovely donations and
practical support, Mick for painting the grotto, Kim Gittens for
all her support on the day, Mike for providing the music
equipment, snow machine and comparing announcements.
Thank you to all residents and organisations
who took part in this year's Christmas Fun Day!
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