As the evenings start to draw in and many families think about the new school year, we look back over the summer fundraising events. We may have seen you at our stalls at Cottered Village Day and Braughing Wheelbarrow Race. We also had stands at the Edwinstree School Summer Fair and Buntingford Family Fun Day. At all of the events we had the opportunity to speak to many of you, some new to the area and provide an update on our progress.

Cottered Village Day

The weather forecast was for hot, hot, hot for the 22nd June so much so that the dog show was cancelled, however on the day there was plenty of cloud cover and quite a breeze too.
Thank you to the individuals and Reed Church who donated books again this year. Following on from last year the Willett family had the gazebo and books set up quickly.

Book stall at Cottered
Children’s books
More books!

New this year, not a slip & slide (as people from a distance thought), but a competitive swimming lane. The option of either coiling in a rope and then throwing it the full distance to rescue an imaginary drowning casualty, or racing one of our swimming dolls by winding in a reel. Jack Toon was successful at the under 16’s rope throwing and went home with a gold medal and an exclusive Ward Freman duck (who always wears a life jacket because he didn’t learn to swim).

New for 2025 our ‘Competitive swimming lane’
Coiling in a rope to throw and rescue someone
Jack Toon – Under 16’s Rope throwing winner

Our local MP Chris Hinchliffe dropped in to see us at Cottered too. He has been a supporter of ours since he was elected and has raised the issue of the pool in parliament. We spoke to many other people, both old friends who regularly receive our email updates and new people who want to join in our campaign too.

£140.20 was raised at Cottered Village Day and we hope to be back again next year.

Edwinstree Middle School Summer Fair

On the 5th July Trustee Frazer Willett and volunteers Carol, Gill, Leigh and Lynne went to Edwinstree Summer Fair and raised £44.70.
Again after weeks of hot weather is was rather breezy with a typical summer rain shower bringing the fair to a prompt closure.

Volunteers were selling pre loved goods in the table top sale arena, whilst Frazer had the competitive swimming lane out again, but seemed to spend most of his time talking to the town Mayor Duncan Wallace!

Braughing Fair & Wheelbarrow Race

The sun was shinning and it was hot hot hot on the 12th July, a perfect day to enjoy the specially created beach at Braughing ford, however not for trustees Sheila White and Philip Wylie. Along with volunteers Jane, Tim and Tricia. They were busy enjoying the drinks, atmosphere and selling pre loved books raising £267.48.

Sunshine & shades at Braughing Fair & Wheelbarrow Race

Buntingford Family Fun Day

Also taking place on the hot 12th July was the Buntingford Family Fun Day. Trustees Frazer & Joanne Willett had the competitive swimming lane out again. A couple of young boys couldn’t keep away and were determined to keep beating each other on the swimming doll race, even if that resorted to cheating. It certainly was a fun day!

If you like the look of our swimming races watch out for our next race evening. A great event where you compete against other ‘coaches’ to see who can reel in the swimmer fastest. Medals are awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd with spectators encouraged to responsibly bet on the outcome of the race. A fun way to spend an evening and help raise money to reopen the pool.

We have now reduced our stock of preloved books for 2025. There are plans for something special with the ‘as new’ books at Christmas time and we traded with World of Books and raised a further £73.18. We hope to be back again in 2026 with our pre loved book stall and will be on the lookout for donations in May. If you know of any events where you feel our stall could be right at home, or you would like to volunteer to help, please get in touch via our contact page.