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Another magical Christmas Fair at The Shed

fairAnother successful Christmas Fair took place at The Shed @ The Adam Eastwood Building on 2 December. Around 750 people attended the event, which was a real community effort. It was organised by Warsop Community Volunteers from across the Parish including Julie Jackson (WYC), Bill Power, Grant Simpson (Sport4kidz), Susan Barrass and Samantha Wilson (Surestart Parent Group), Geoff Snare and Arty Parkin (Warsop & Shirebrook District Rotary), Ruth Riches, Helen Tomlinson and Christine Parkin (Warsop Inner Wheel), Lee Butcher (sf4kids), Frances McLaughlin (Churches together), Andrew Melles and Cara Bostock (Warsop Scouts) and Maddy Pritchard (Vibrant). There were also extra supporters on the day including Jake Simpson, Nigel Jackson, Chris Wade, Kath Pritchard, Sharon Pritchard, Patricia Pritchard, Lisa Butcher and staff from Warsop Co-op.  Edwinstowe Lions provided their sleigh for the Rotary Santa Ted Smith.  A massive thank you to everyone who was involved.

The first Christmas Fair at The Shed was held in 2016, supported by a £1,000 grant from Big Warsop, which helped to kick start the event. This year the organisers were keen to try and run the event with the £300 in the kitty from last year’s event.   With the promise of some wonderful performances from local schools this budget could not stretch to cover hiring PA equipment for the performers and a successful application was made to the RoLo / Community Chest to cover the cost of hiring PA and a team to run it.

Findtheflea

Photo courtesy of Warsop Youth Cloub

There was plenty of music on offer too from Birklands School Choir and Voices of the Vale Children’s Choir, as well as community carol singing.

The Co-op generously provided 500 selection boxes for Santa Claus to give out to local children. As well as Santa’s grotto, there were plenty of other activities on offer. Surestart Children’s Centre ran craft activities with a chance for people to try their hand at icing biscuits for Christmas.

Meden Vale Children’s Group offered a craft activity and there was a tombola and games – including a fundraising ‘find the flea on Rudolph’ game run by Warsop Youth Club’s Youth Board.

Warsop Inner Wheel offered sustenance in the form of soup and cakes, and there were bungee trampolines and fair ground rides – something for everyone, in fact.

Feedback from stall holders and people attending:

“The event was well organised.”

“It was a great event and lovely to hear the children singing.”

VoVMaddy Pritchard from Vibrant Warsop said: “There is no other venue in Warsop that is large enough to bring this number of people together. In the summer lots of people attend the carnival because they know they are likely to see familiar faces and have the chance to catch up with old friends in the community. Whilst the Christmas event at The Shed doesn’t have the capacity to match the carnival, it does offer an opportunity for local people to get together under cover to celebrate Christmas and have some fun during the winter months.”

We asked Maddy whether the Christmas Fair is likely to be back at The Shed again in 2018. She said: “One would hope so, but it will depend on who shows up in February to start planning again for next year. Pulling off an event like this isn’t easy – it only happened because of the hard work of volunteers. If you enjoyed the Christmas Fair this year and want to see it return in 2018, I would urge you to come and join our meeting in February when we will be reviewing the event to see what went well and what didn’t work so well. Please come along to offer your support and help us make next year’s event even better.”

The meeting will be held at The Plough Inn, Warsop on Tuesday 13 February at 7:30pm. Everyone is welcome to attend the meeting to give their feedback and to find out how to get involved as a volunteer for next year’s Christmas Fair.

Photo: Courtesy of Warsop Youth Club