Trust Life: give a little, gain a lot
Virginia Kennedy, Sandra Kerr, Joanne Burn and Emma Dunn
Welcome once again to life at the Trust. As our volunteers prepare this edition of the Ambler we are nearly half way through the very first Puffin Festival.
Praise should be given to the few but loyal volunteers who have organised and are now delivering the comprehensive two week programme. We hope that with the range of activities there will be something for everyone.
Sadly there will always be the odd minority who are prepared to carp, while contributing little to the community. No time to help but plenty of time to complain – how sad!
Perhaps they could learn from the old saying: give a little, gain a lot.
Anyway enough page space for the doubters, thank goodness they are a minority otherwise we may have to forego the status of Friendliest Port!
Unfortunately all planning goes by the wayside when the weather decides to misbehave, which it did in spectacular fashion for our planned opening ceremony.
Saturday the 18th dawned with torrential rain that didn’t ease at all, which meant cancelling the performance and Emerge concert. Everyone pulled together to reorganise whatever we could and all our little Pufflings arrived on Sunday to dance and sing their way around the Town Square. Virginia, Emma, Joanne and Sandra, choreographed, dressed, conducted and rehearsed with all the young people to perform a depiction of the arrival of the birds, History of Coquet Island, Firebird Dance and for the grand finale, a rendition of Muffin the Puffling.
We hope to reorganise Emerge later in the summer, when exams and holidays allow students more time.
So far we have had some wonderful positive feedback, from youngsters who took part in the opening, story telling and crafts to older residents and tourists who have walked, talked, potted and sung. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves and we hope businesses benefit too, which is the main reason for the event.
On regeneration matters: the feasibility study for the former Northumbrian Foods site is now complete, with a final briefing scheduled for mid June. Findings have informed a bid to Coastal Communities Fund. This is only the Expression of Interest stage, where successful applicants will be asked to go to full application in July – results in January 2014. It’s a long process so we can only sit and wait.
At the welfare things are moving on and the pavilion work is almost complete. It is sad news that Amble United have made the decision to disband. The team & managers have made a tremendous effort to climb up the league tables but sadly it has all come to an end due to lack of volunteers to assist.
From the Trust’s point of view I would like to thank Brenda and Ronnie Falkous for all the hard work they have put in in maintaining the pavilion on our behalf. Your help has been greatly appreciated and we wish you both better health in the coming years.
By the time you read this the festival will be over, we hope you have found something you enjoyed. I’m sure the Town Team will be putting their feet up and enjoying a well earned rest.
In the meantime back to puffining!
Julia
