OK…..so I’m sat here at 11:34pm having watched England dismantle Australia in the Ashes for the second day running whilst thinking I MUST WRITE THE BLOG! So here it is. Tonight however it will be brief, very brief!
Today was a gloriously sunny day and throughout the summer we have tried to serve users in the park ice creams, drinks and sweets whenever we can get a volunteer or two down there to raise a few pounds.
It is worth mentioning that our building project to date has been worth over £30,000 when you take into account the building itself and all of the the materials that have been donated so far…but the amazing thing is we’ve spent no more than a few thousand pounds. Granted, we still have over half of the invoices for moving the building to pay, and we are grateful to Associated Systems for spreading the invoices over a few months to give us time to get monies together – but we have demonstrated the true power of community to get things done. Yes it would have been quicker and easier to have had a few big grants of £10000 or so, and certainly a lot less stressful (if you don’t believe me, take a look at Shane) but actually I’m liking how our need has become our community’s opportunity to be generous and generous they have been.
None more so, than those who have been generous with their time and tonight in this short entry I want to pay tribute to two lovely ladies who spent the whole day today cleaning fridges and reorganising stock as well as selling a few refreshments. Actually without Toyah and Vicki we would have been very much stuck these last few weeks as they put in a lion’s share of time toward the painting in preparation for the new floor to be laid last weekend. So ladies I honour you and thank you for your efforts and look forward to when you are both serving me a coffee in our lovely new cafe.
One more mention of note this evening must go to Luke Ellis of The Little Blind Company who today donated and installed brand new roller blinds throughout the building.
The inside is now looking very nice indeed, thank you Luke.
Tomorrow I will share what I planned to share tonight but haven’t and also say a little bit about our volunteer scheme and how you can get involved. Thanks for reading. Rob.