The children of Wattisfield eagerly anticipate the unlocking of the gate to open their new play area, along with celebrity guest, actor Lex Shrapnel.
Following Wattisfield Community Centre & Recreation Ground Committee’s blog on 24th November, Lou Fowler describes the day of the launch event for the new play area, for which Community Spaces awarded £49,950 to create.
After years of hard work and months of coordinating the Wattisfield Play Area project we finally reached the day of the launch event.
On the morning of the launch we were all praying that the heavy rain would stop. Just in time for setting up, the sun came out and we were very relieved.
It was all hands on deck to get the gazebo up (in case we needed shelter later) and some local mums set up the hall with attractions for later in the afternoon, including a storytelling area and face painting.
Before we knew it, it was close to 2pm and many people had arrived including our celebrities Lex Shrapnel and Jockey bear.
The East Anglian Daily Times and Bury Free Press also turned up just in time for the official launch.
There seemed to be quite a few locals young and old alike that had come out to see what all the fuss was about and there was quite a crowd when the Chairman of Wattisfield Community Centre and Recreation Ground Committee, Andy, gave his speech.
We were a little concerned at one point when we couldn’t see many children but then suddenly when it was time for our celebrities to cut the ribbons to officially open the play area, they all appeared; enough children to fill the play area and more!
The East Anglian Daily Times tried their best to get the children to hold back a minute while they got some shots of Lex Shrapnel on the slide and other play items but the children were of course so eager that it was impossible to hold them back and they ran into the play area with excitement. It was a joy to see.
Congratulations to the hard working and determined volunteers in Wattisfield for getting this much needed asset for the community. I had the pleasure to facilitate the group on behalf of Community Spaces and it was a delight to work with such an efficient and jolly bunch of people, quite inspiring!
[...] Wattisfield Community Centre and Recreation Ground Committee didn’t down the tools after the successful launch of their play project last year. The group have been working hard to encourage more people to fully use the new [...]