Leverhulme Park was decorated with bunting and flags, a large free buffet was prepared and the activities sorted and waiting for one thing, the people! The public didn't let us down and this event became our biggest success, smashing our previous attendance record, we estimated the number of people who attended throughout the day was between 600 and 700 people.
Only two days prior we had been notified that Bolton NEWT had been awarded an MBE for voluntary services, yet we had been planning this event for months, so it was a lovely coincidence to host a jubilee party at Leverhulme Park. The activities we prepared involved a focus on sports and games which aimed to bring families together enjoying a healthy free activity in the park.
We used grant funding from Asda to fund this event, with almost 50% of the budget being spent on purchasing a big free healthy Asda picnic for families to enjoy. One of the nicest aspects of hosting our seasonal events is meeting such a wide range of the community and bringing them all together in one place, community cohesion is a buzzword often used in the charity sector that sounds nice on paper but often falls flat in practice, over the years we've managed to organize our events so that they focus on the one thing all families have in common, the simple desire to spend a nice day out as a family, no stress, no hassle and just getting to be a family enjoying spending time together as a family.
A big thank you to Alun Morris and Eleanor at HERA for supporting Bolton NEWT on our activity, they kindly offered to provide a free pond dipping session, it was clearly a big success with many a stickleback caught.
A massive shout out of praise to James and Noo for being the jubilee dinosaurs at the event, we only discovered later that Ariana and her little gang of four-year-olds had been terrorizing the dinosaurs, which you can catch a glimpse of in the video below. Next year, we'll have to keep a closer eye on the troublemakers.
Thank you to everyone who supported our event, who enjoyed the family day out, it was entirely organized by volunteers and hosted by volunteers from the community. We hope, with fingers crossed, that next year we can yet again obtain grant funding and not just host but expand this event.