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Helen’s diary...<br />
We’ve held Cockney nights for the past four years,<br />
so when we heard about the Let’s Get the Party<br />
Started programme we knew we had to go for it.<br />
Getting everyone together for a proper oldfashioned<br />
night out is so much fun. It’s been<br />
a great way for everyone to get to know each<br />
other better, bringing together all age groups<br />
from the community to have a laugh and some<br />
hot food. So we really wanted to carry on doing<br />
it and keep those connections.<br />
“It’s been a great way for everyone<br />
to get to know each other better,<br />
bringing together all age groups”<br />
This year we’re planning to have bingo, a<br />
singer, a novelty act and a traditional hosted<br />
sing-a-long. We want to provide an event that<br />
will bring together all ages from the community<br />
and a cheap night of entertainment in a safe<br />
environment. We put on transport if people are<br />
unable to get there or are worried about using<br />
public transport. We have run the event for four<br />
years now and each year the fi rst question the<br />
attendees ask at the end of the night is “What<br />
date is next year’s do?”<br />
The trouble with anything like this is that you<br />
have to do the paperwork! But I downloaded<br />
the form online and it didn’t look too bad –<br />
just three pages. Teasie Obersteller, New City<br />
Primary’s learning mentor, fi lled it in and then it<br />
was just a question of sending it and crossing<br />
our fi ngers. When we found out that our event<br />
proposal had been approved there was a lot of<br />
celebrating!<br />
In the past it’s been a challenge getting<br />
funding for our event. We’ve all had to learn<br />
a lot about fundraising, and even this year<br />
we’ll have to get some extra money in from<br />
somewhere. We have been lucky enough to<br />
receive an Inspiring People grant from the<br />
council but apart from that we have found it<br />
diffi cult to pull in the necessary funds to provide<br />
a fantastic night of entertainment. But we will<br />
succeed, we have no doubt about that!<br />
It’s early March when I’m writing this and<br />
we’ve already done so much: we have booked<br />
the venue, organised the entertainment and<br />
food, fundraised, distributed publicity, devised<br />
the programme for the night and persuaded<br />
our head teacher to let us leave early on the<br />
day to set up the room!<br />
We’re all really looking forward to the<br />
enjoyment on the people’s faces. But between<br />
now and then, there’s a lot of hard work to do...<br />
09
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