Report for the Queen’s 90th Birthday Celebrations at Winterborne Kingston
The day started early for the organising committee, with the setup in Church Street and the recreation ground going into full swing at 7am and the weather was kind to us throughout the day.
We estimate that the attendance across the day was in the region of 300-400 people. The afternoon street tea party saw many faces that we don’t see together very often, which was lovely to see.
Jamie Jigsaw entertained the children, whilst the ladies of the WI and Church kindly provided teas and coffees and we would like to extend huge thanks to them for all their support.
At 3pm, the whole of the Church Street setting was taken down and moved to the recreation ground, no mean task but we achieved it with the help of Laurence Burgess and Marty Maple and, again, we would like to extend our thanks to them, we couldn’t have done it without them.
The evening commenced at 6pm with hot food, music and children’s entertainment provided by our committee members and their families. Special thanks go out to Jackie Knapp and Hannah Leaper for providing the face painting, Patrick Tucker at Dorset Ice Cream, Kerry-Anne Crabb of ABC Leisure for providing the bouncy castle, Sarah and Jody Sanders of Kingsbere Kitchen for providing the hot food, Carl, John and Jack from the Greyhound Inn for sponsoring and running the bar throughout the day. In addition, we need to thank Rob Mack of Shamrock Scaffolding for providing our stage and Bere Regis Scouts for providing the bar tent.
The Alibi played throughout the evening and their music was enjoyed by all, with dancing until midnight and many sore heads in the morning. Our Grand Prize Draw took place at 9pm and the first prize of a hot air balloon flight was won by Paul and Barbara Mays.
Sunday morning saw the committee regroup and the site was cleared within 2.5 hours, despite most feeling very fragile and exhausted from the day before.
I would personally like to thank all of the organising committee. We worked extremely well as a team and delivered a fantastic community building event, one which was enjoyed by everyone who attended and there are numerous photos on the village Facebook page. The committee feel that the reintroduction of an annual event in WK, which builds on community bonding, is definitely something that we would like to do. So watch this space for next year’s event.
At this point, we know that we have fund raised in excess of £2,000 for our community good cause fund. The money will be ring-fenced within the Parish Council accounts to be used for either a good cause within our community or helping towards the cost of future events, which are in themselves, a good cause for our village. Decisions on good cause grant awards will be made by the event organising committee and this will, in turn, be regulated by an award grant method document that will be agreed and implemented in due course and held by the Parish Clerk.
In due course, we will be holding an open meeting for villagers to attend, where we will formally elect an organising committee with a view to setting plans for the introduction of an annual village event.
Mark Leaper
Organising Committee Chairman.