ONE INCREDIBLE DAY

Vanda, Kirsten and Heather with the time capsule carefully crafted by Mike Allenby

HARD to believe that in just two hours on Saturday the Great Big Coffee morning organised by Heather Hodgson raised a massive, and record-breaking, £1,862. Another £140 from the evening concert by the Wensleydale Chorus was added, making a total for the weekend of £2002. Heather and her team moved in to church to set up at 9.30pm on Friday, just as the 80-strong choir finished their final rehearsal. Bric-a-brac, books, plants and home-grown produce, children’s games, and a tombola all had to be in place for the following day’s fundraiser, and they worked through ’til midnight to achieve it. On Saturday so many contributions arrived for the home-made cake stall that extra tables had to be brought in from the hall. Meanwhile Amanda Killip set up her FairTrade stall near the vestry, and hundreds of home-made biscuits arrived: some of which were sold at the concert in the evening and in church on Sunday morning. It was a massively successful event and the church didn’t empty until well after the midday finish time. Then began the job of clearing up: boxing up all the unsold bric-a-brac – which was taken to Yorebridge Sport and Fitness centre to be offered for sale again at their family fun day next Sunday (July 22) – and the washing-up in the kitchen. It was a miracle that by the time the choir started arriving to prepare for the concert in the early evening, there was hardly a trace of the day’s frantic activity. The church was packed again by 7pm, ready to hear the Wensleydale Chorus sing Schubert’s Mass in G and Vivaldi’s Gloria, two lovely choral classics which calmed the soul after a hectic day. It is difficult to imagine two more contrasting events, or a better use of the new space created by the removal of the pews, and re-laying of flags in the north aisle. All agreed that Mark Hammond had done a superb job, and that without his efforts the weekend’s events would not have been nearly as successful: in fact, it became oddly hard to imagine that the pews had ever been there. Thanks also to all who contributed so generously to the raffle, the tombola, and all the many stalls. Without all of you, none of this would have happened.