Greatest Ever Attendance at the Didsbury Park Easter Egg Hunt
EASTER WEEKEND EVENT
GREATEST ATTENDANCE EVER AT THE DIDSBURY PARK EASTER EGG HUNT
We were very lucky with the weather at our Easter Egg Hunt on Easter Saturday morning especially as the forecast Storm Dave did not arrive until later in the evening.
We had a record attendance this year with an amazing total of over 300 children registering to take part. We also recorded the number of participating adults and calculated that we peaked at over 600 participants all busy searching for multicoloured eggs hidden around the park. With each child collecting an average of about 5 eggs, it was quite incredible how our organising team from Grove Church managed to keep a constant re-cycling supply of 1,500 eggs available for the children to find. There was an amazing lovely buzz of excitement throughout the park all morning as the eggs were spotted and the children filled out their trail questionnaire about features within the park.
The whole event ran like clockwork thanks to the experienced Grove Church team headed by the Reverend Tom Burke and his wife Kirsty. Allan and I provided support from the Friends of Didsbury Park. Picture 1 shows a picture of the Grove Church team after we had just packed up after the event - Tom is wearing the lanyard and Kirsty is next to him with their young daughter. A huge thank you to Allan, and the excellent team from Grove Church.
TODAY
Despite it being a Bank Holiday today we were delighted to see that we had an attendance of as many as 34 volunteers this morning and an even more pleasant surprise when the clouds quickly disappeared and we had a lovely warm sunny morning to work in. We were very pleased to welcome a new local volunteer Steve Dalton, and also to welcome back Sofia and Artem who have returned to Didsbury after a short spell living in Glasgow.
It is always a lovely surprise when we get spontaneous help and complimentary comments from members of the public. We had such a case this morning, when Eunice and her partner were walking through the park, noticed we were all busy in our hi-vis, and asked if they could help by doing a litter pick as they did their walk. They did a great job too - thank you! We were also pleased to have another visit from Robin today. Everybody was made very welcome.
TODAY - WEEDING THE TULIP BED
Although it happens every year, it is still a surprise, when what may have looked like a tidy flower bed last week, suddenly becomes a mass of weeds the next. This was so typical of our tulip bed today that we immediately deployed a large team to address it.
Picture 2 shows (from front to back) the large team of Lesley, Wendy, Steve, Gill B, Taylan, Sofia, Artem, Mustafa, Patrick and Chris. The team worked really hard and removed many wheelbarrows full of weeds before creating a much more attractive flower bed by coffee break time, as can be seen in picture 3. Well done everyone. An excellent result.
TODAY - WORK ON THE OTHER FLOWER BEDS
Currently we are blessed with some beautiful flower beds in the park - full of colourful blooming flowers, which, thanks to the skills of our volunteers, seem to be in continuous bloom. Picture 4 is an excellent example and shows Millie, Sonia and Louise standing behind one of our rose beds. Especial thanks to Louise who was working on weeding and feeding all three rose beds this morning.
Picture 5 shows Sandra working hard on one of our other stunning flower beds whilst it looks a bit like Richard, Greg, Tom and Carl have paused for a moment, to let her get on with it!!! (only joking). To be fair, Richard, Greg and Carl were extremely busy applying a small redesign change to the protective kick fencing which they installed around the bed to prevent the flowers being damaged by passing dogs. Thank you all. This was a super result.
Meanwhile Sonia and Lesley also weeded the adjoining flower beds near Buddy and Lucy and Allan mowed the grass around them to tidy up the whole area. See picture 6 of Allan taking the grass clippings to the skip. Thank you.
Across the other side of the park we have to thank Tristan for enhancing the rockery area by purchasing and planting a mixture of 4 new very healthy lavender and thrift plants. Great work Tristan. Thank you.
TODAY - KEEPING THE POSTER INFORMATION AROUND THE PARK UP TO DATE
Given the fast flowing programme of events being held in the park it is important that all the advertising information is kept up to date.
Picture 7 shows Lorna and Luke 'on the case' as they work right across the park removing the out of date posters for the Easter Egg Hunt from all the gates, notice boards and lecterns. Excellent work - love the cool glasses!
TODAY - MULCHING AND COMPOST
After our coffee break we allocated a new set of priority jobs. Having completed their work on weeding the tulip beds, picture 8 shows Patrick and Chris turning over the compost in the compost bays.
Picture 9 shows Taylan and Mustafa getting ready to turn over the top layer of the rotten leaf pile ready for use as a mulch. Thank you guys this will be great for the flower beds in weeks to come.
TODAY - CRICKET PREPARATIONS COMPLETE!
After 3 continuous weeks of cutting and preparation I am delighted to report that Gary reached the stage today when it was time to mark out the wicket!!
Picture 10 shows Gary preparing the line whitening machine ready for the marking. Thank you Gary, let's hope the children enjoy this new wicket and you never know it may even encourage and develop some blossoming cricket talent for the future. I think England needs it! Thank you Gary.
TODAY - ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK
A huge thank you once again to Alan who spotted and cleaned off graffiti from the Poppy Path
The entrance to the Gillbrook Road gate was once again made spotless by Brenda - thank you Brenda - this was a lovely job.
In Gill N's absence today we have to say a big thank you to Sonia, for stepping in and not only providing an Easter Egg treat but for also organising our drinks at the break time
Finally last but not least Tom did some great work on the Poppy Path this morning tidying up some emergency pruning of a fallen tree which was undertaken a week ago when a tree fell onto the path. Great work Tom - thank you.
Thank you once again for your amazing support.