Richie, Edie, and me (wearing my own creation).
Susan on the other side of our table.
Another view from our table.
This was an event organised by the local government funded group Back On The Map. It's a fun thing with lots of entertainment but also stalls from a variety of local groups and was held at Valley Road Primary School and Community Centre in Hendon. As you can see it was a sunny day which always helps and there was a nice feel to the entire thing. A very family-orientated event with something for everyone from the very young to old farts like me.
Hendon is a somewhat deprived area of Sunderland about a half mile from where we live and from Animal Krackers shop; as such we are part of the Hendon Community and have had some funding from Back on the Map. It's an area with high unemployment, a lot of cheap rented housing, its own probation office, a significant Bangla Deshi community (a high proportion by Sunderland standards, low in comparison to almost any other British city), and also a fairly active British National Party which still manages to completely fail to attract enough votes to win a council seat, plus a high level of crime and drugs. Despite this I rather like the place and a couple of my ex-colleague from the library service live there quite happily. Despite all the problems there is a strong sense of community.
We were attending just to maintain our profile and to raise some money. We had three tables packed with stuff and all aimed at kids. We had lucky bags (parcels really) for boys and for girls, and a Teddy Tombola -pick a ticket and win the cuddly toy with the matching number -everyone a winnah! Everything a pound. We went through all our lucky bags in less than two hours and had only a quarter of our cuddly toys left at the end and had made £154.00 between 11.00-2.30 (though we'd been there since 10.00 setting up).
As I said, there was plenty going on over several areas. I felt sorry for my old mate Ronnie who was in charge of the mobile library and who had the misfortune to be parked between a police car where kids could get in and sound the siren which they did quite often and a band of drummers who drummed loudly and often. The British Army were doing their usual promotion and had erected a climbing tower (see bottom photo) which looked fun for kids of all ages but I managed to restrain myself. Right next to where we were was the stage. Organised by the local radio station, it organised games for kids, played records, and hosted live music including a group of violin playing schoolchildren (rather nice) and a singer with his electric guitar (whose voice was often flat). Fortunately the speakers were facing away from us so we weren't flattened by the sound. Around eleven I felt peckish so I had a nice carton of chips (or french fries if there are any Americans reading this) from a greasy food van and a for lunch a nice and spicy lamb curry from the van on the other side of the stage to us. If there were any racial tensions then the racists stayed away and everyone was very nice.
To be honest, I usually try and get out of going to things like this but it really was a very pleasant day.
No comments:
Post a Comment