Jubilee picnic party

The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations were all about the legacy of the last 70 years, not only from Her Majesty’s perspective but from that of our entire country and the Commonwealth. The celebrations brought together generations and communities to share stories so that we can all learn more and inspire kindness and respect.

So that was exactly what we did, we invited everyone from our local communities to share in the celebrations with us, experience the passions and skills running through our people and be part of shaping a positive future for our communities.

On Thursday 2nd June we held our very own picnic party fit for a Queen (or King, prince or princess) with family games, arts and crafts activities and a Jubilee themed tombola, along with special appearance from Urban Kaos and our very own Thorntree Dance Crew, who performed a nine-minute mash up to songs from the 1950’s to now. They worked tirelessly for four weeks leading up to the event, to put on a show that motivated everyone to get up and dance.

Our very own Galloway Gardens gang even made an appearance, providing individual ‘Grow your own’ bags for people to take away, hopefully inspiring the next generation of gardeners. Everyone who attended was also given a leaf to write a wish upon and then each person had the opportunity to place it on our tree to build one big Community Wish Tree. The aim being to show how we hope to grow as a community and reach new heights.

We had 120 tickets on offer and every single one got snapped up. Not only did that mean 120 pieces of cake to slice and 120 drinks to pour but it also meant 120 faces to paint, but we knew we were up to the challenge!

As this occasion was not only about celebrating but also learning, we felt this was a great opportunity to join forces with our local support services who cover a broad range of topics, and all in all help us to grow positive futures. As part of this we had appearances from Step Forward Tees Valley, Slimming World, Mind, and even Stockton based mental health charity, Red Balloons, who offer a safe space for people to voice their stories and issues whilst getting help and support, and lead by people who have real life experience of a range of mental health conditions.

The party didn’t stop there, our very own Pavilion Nursery also held an open day as part of the celebrations on Tuesday 7th June, to welcome their local community in North Ormesby. The nursery is a recent addition to the CVL network over the last six months and they have gone from strength to strength. The party provided a great opportunity for our team to meet more of the community and find out what they need.

Operations Director, Rachel Gault said “The needs of our communities are constantly changing, and we hope to use events like this to keep our feet to the ground and respond to that change effectively. We feel so privileged to have been joined by so many wonderful people and we met so many new faces too. Opportunities like this don’t come around often, so when they do we feel it’s hugely important to show how much we value the people in our communities.”