Moses Gate July 13

Moses Gate Summer Fayre - Sunday 28th July

2013

If you have read my previous reports, you will know that they are invariably weather related, and so this one will be no different. If you remember the month of July, it will be for the glorious weather we had for pretty much all the month. Well it all changed on the weekend of the 28th July, and boy did it change.

We managed to set up our canopy without any rain, but then it came in waves, one minute it would be sunny and warm, the next it was chucking it down, and this pattern continued right through to the close of the show. I was amazed that we has customers at all, but it just shows what a hardy bunch, us Northerners are, as whilst not rushed off our feet, our ducks still did good business (well it was perfect weather for ducks).

At least we could take cover under our canopy, unlike the bloke doing his act up on a wire, so we all had to admire his commitment, which is more than can be said for the birds of prey, who were nowhere to be seen.

As you can see below, we kept in high spirits through the day

Thanks to all those people who came to our stall on the day and those Lions taking part, it was a day for showing the British spirit!

Lion John Crompton
18th September 2013

Bromley Cross Summer Fayre

Bromley Cross Summer Fayre at The Last Drop - Saturday 11th May 2013
(Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you)

An early start for a Saturday morning was required, up at 7AM to help set up with Tony Foster at 8AM. Luckily the canopy shown below was already erected, so all we had to do was get all our wares for putting on the stall, onto the tables provided, and erect our own tables. More Lions arrived to help us do this, some of which can be seen in the picture below.

The weather forecast for the morning was not too pleasant, with heavy rain expected until at least midday, but at least we could shelter under the canopy, unlike a few stallholders, who had no protection apart from their umbrellas!

There is nothing you can do in England when it rains but adopt a positive spirit, and with the help of the DJ's from Bolton FM, this is what we did, with the girl guides singing and dancing, and the Air Cadets entertaining us with various songs, especially 'The Great Escape'.

The rain started easing at around 12.30, and then stopped completely for the Afternoon, which lead to an influx of visitors to the Last Drop, as we were located right next to the Arena, this meant we got a good share of those visitors.

We had taken, our dice game, some Jewelry, England merchandise and our 'hook-a-duck' game. As last year, the ducks were a magnet for smaller children, and we were very busy for a couple of hours, raising over £200, with about 95 percent of it from our lovely ducks.

You do get the sense of a good community occasion at these events, and it all makes for a good day out, which I would recommend to anyone for next year.

Going back to the title of this piece, always take the weather with you, as before 12.30 we only raised £15!

Thanks to all Lions who came down on the day.

Lion John Crompton

13th May 2013

Our completed stall, in the rain.









Some entertainment in the Arena, in this case the Accrington Pipe Band.

Sleigh

Christmas Sleigh with Bolton Lever Rotary Club  - December 2012

Having not written much for past activities since the NHS Health Fair, I thought I would share my time on the Sleigh at Christmas, before we start this year's activities programme with our collection at Asda Burnden Park being done today and tomorrow.

When I helped with our collection using Father Christmas (pictured above) and the Sleigh, we started from Lostock Railway Station on a bitterly cold Wednesday at 6.30PM, with temperatures stuck at -2 degrees Centigrade.

We headed North from the station, around some very prosperous neighbourhoods in the Lostock Area, unfortunately wealthy people can afford long drives and gates before you get to their properties, so that the music coming from the sleigh, and the ringing of our bell did not seem to reach them.

This meant that our collecting was very slow, but it was very rewarding talking to our Rotary colleagues on the evening, as it is the first time we have shared an event with them.

When we did get people to come out of their houses then we did get donations, and it is always a pleasure to see the faces of young children when they get close to Father Christmas, one mother did cut short her children's bath time and dragged them out to see us!

After about one hour (of the scheduled 2 hours), my nose was starting to run, but at that point unfortunately the PA system on the Sleigh packed in, and could not be resurrected. But out of bad always comes good, as at that point I was talking to a very pleasant couple, who came out to donate in more ways than one. Seeing how cold the night was, they offered me a nip of black Sambuca, which definitely warmed the cockles!

After a quick discussion, we decided to call it a night, as without any music playing, we would not be heard, which would make getting anybodies attention would be nigh on impossible.

Fortunately the other collection nights on the sleigh were problem free (apart from Father Christmas losing his beard on one night!).

We raised a lot of money and had a good time doing it, so we will do it again this year.

Lion John Crompton
15th February 2013

NHS Health Fair

Royal Bolton Hospital Health Fair  - 22nd September 2012

The Lion is let loose!

When we were invited to the Royal Bolton Hospital Health Fair, it seemed to our club too good an opportunity to miss, as we could promote our hospital radio service and give out some of our 'message in a bottle' bottles.

We were situated on the Erskine Car Park at the hospital, with the canopy already erected, so we just needed to put up our hospital radio display, our roll up banners and our Bolton Lions Club banner, and then stock up the table with bottles and leaflets and then we were ready.

Our banner can be seen at the back of the stall on the photograph below, as all the canopies had no backs, this proved opportune as it was both a wind break and useful advertising as it could be seen in all it's glory from the stalls on the other side of the road.

We also had brought our newest piece of equipment, the block rocker, which is a large piece of sound equipment, amplifying music from a ipod. This allowed us to entertain the other stalls on the car park, when the music from the speakers of Tower FM let us, with some Frank Sinatra songs from my son's ipod.

One of our Lions, Tom Slattery, had agreed to don the Lions costume (see below) and achieved his first target of getting a picture with Dave Spikey very quickly, and then proceeded to roam around the venue (well he is a Lion), followed by his official photographer (me!). He brought a lot of pleasure to the young children who were there, with most of them having a high five and receiving a lions sticker in return. He also has a few tests done at the Hospital Canopies, and was pronounced in good health! (Unlike John Fairhurst, who seemed to fail them all.)

Back at the stall, we gave out a number of our bottles and make several good contacts, so we were happy with how the day developed.

Packing up time was by 3PM, which we achieved, this was just as well, as they starting taking the canopy down at 3.01PM. For myself and Tom, we were off to Brookfield in Westhoughton to set up for our own Charter later that day, but that is a different story!

Thanks to all Lions who attended and the Royal Bolton Hospital for putting on an excellent event.

Lion John Crompton
12th October 2012

Look at all those lovely bottles.

                                                 A Lion between two thorns?

Canopy - 08/09/12

Bolton Canopy  - 15th September 2012

There was a nice day in September!

I found out yet again, that there is a 7AM on a Saturday Morning, as we had to be at the Canopy at 8AM (not the normal 8.30AM) to unload the van, so that it was removed by 9AM.

Even half an hour earlier doesn't deter the people who always seem to be there before you are even set up, who are waiting to see the bargains as they are unpacked.

Once we were unpacked I was as normal, positioned at the 'front of house' selling our Bric-a-Braque, with a mixture of new pieces, and several old friends from previous canopies. We were also selling books, records & Cd's, clothes, curtains and some paintings, so hopefully something for everyone.

As usual the banter on the stall was first class, helped as usual by the jokes of John Fairhurst. This allied to a steady mix of customers helped the day pass very quickly, and as I noted in the title, it was a very nice day with the sun shining, rather than raining as it seemed to do for the rest of September. Not that you appreciated the sun under the canopy, we just got shade!

We always like to give (imaginary) prizes for Lions selling items, which we think are pretty much unsellable, and the first to get one today was Ray for selling 2 fairly garish flippers (probably useful due to all the rain) and later I also got one, as I sold the most hideous looking witch I think we had ever seen, to someone who wanted it for her shop (hope it doesn't scare the customers away).

The picture above is the front of house in action, although this is from March this year.

It turned out that it was one of our best days of the canopy for money received, so a big thank you to all our customers on the day, and thanks to all Lions who took part.

We will be back for our last Canopy of the year on Friday 19th October.

Lion John Crompton
5th October 2012

Asda Burnden Park - 25/08/12

Asda Burnden Park - 25th August 2012 

It's all about the Planning

You wouldn't have thought it is hard to coordinate a collection in a supermarket, we already had the date confirmed, Jim Wells had the buckets, stickers and roll-ups, and a full sheet of Lions who would be collecting in 2 hour shifts, from 9AM to 5PM. What could go wrong?

Well the first problem was a phone call from Jim Wells at 9.15AM, he was on his own, as the other Lion hadn't turned up, I had asked him to call me if there was a problem as I could not get hold of the Lion to confirm he was still ok to do his bit.

I told Jim I would be there as soon as possible, and arrived at Asda at ten past ten, it was fairly busy at that time and we set to in giving out stickers to the kids in exchange for money, and getting money from anyone else who would be so obliging. We also has plenty of bottles from our message in a bottle scheme to hand out if we could (at no cost to the public).

I was down to do the second shift anyway, and was joined by Babu, so no problems in the period from 11AM to 1PM. I handed over to John Fairhurst and Dipanker for their slot, but asked a pertinent question. Was Steve Pendlebury alright to do his shift later, as John had been speaking to him last night on the phone from the hospital radio studio, and he was in bed at that time. John said that he hadn't mentioned his shift today, so we agreed that I would ring Steve, and if he was not up to it, then I would come back and do the first hour of the 3PM to 5PM shift, and John was available to do the second hour.

I am sure you can guess that Steve was still not well, so arrangements were made with John.

So after a brief break at home and some dinner, I returned to Asda, ready to take over, there was no sign yet of Tony Foster, so I was on my own. John said he could come back earlier if Tony did not turn up. Again I'm sure you can guess that he didn't (not surprisingly as I found out he was still in Sri Lanka!), so John would get back as soon as he could.

Next problem, John phoned to say he had a puncture, so would be back as soon as he could.

He did arrive fairly quickly anyway, but it had gone a little quiet anyway on getting donations since about 3.15PM.

We decided to call it a day at 4.30PM, and pack up all our troubles!

When our collection was counted, it had been a below average day, possibly due to the fact it was still in the holiday period, but it is still money we can use with our various good causes, so thanks to all those people who put money into our buckets on the day.

Thanks to those Lions who collected on the day, and next time you want me to coordinate an event, don't call me I will call you!

Lion John Crompton
5th October 2012

Bromley Cross

Bromley Cross Summer Fayre - 12th May 2012 

Who knew that there is a 7AM on a Saturday Morning? Well that's what time I got up, so that I could pick up Lion John Fairhurst and be at the Last Drop to set up for 8AM, I don't get up that early to go to work!

At least the weather was sunny although there was a strong cold wind, which greeted us as we walked up to the car park behind the last drop to meet Tony Foster and set up our stall.

On setting up, we discovered we had an excellent position, as we were sheltered from the cold wind mentioned above, which blew hard up the main thoroughfare of the last drop.

An immediate problem reared it's ugly head, poor planning by the organising committee, meant there were no bacon butties available, unless you wanted to spend over a tenner on a breakfast in the hotel. This was partially rectified by dinnertime, with the consumption of both pasties and ice cream, and in John Fairhurst's case, anything else that was on offer.

As you can see from the photograph's below, we had taken a variety of games, including the dice game and our key game to entice the punters, but we really needn't have bothered, as yet again the hook a duck game, proved to be a magnet for smaller children, and was in constant use all day.

As you can see below, due to the foresight of Tony Foster, we used blue noses in the pool rather than water, which was just as well, as the slope we were on would have seen all the water disappear towards the last drop.

An excellent day was had by all who attended, and I look forward to next year's event.

Lion John Crompton

24th September 2012