On Sunday 11th December, Trixie Trishaw and two members of the team headed out on a cold and frosty morning to the very beautiful Ropner Park for the Friends of Ropner Park Festive Fair.
We arrived at the park a little after 10am. The heavy frost and the light mist all added to the festive atmosphere. Our first stop was the Cafe in the Park for two hot cups of tea before we made our way towards the beautifully restored fountain to find a suitable place to station ourselves for the duration, but not without taking in the wonderful products available on the stalls on our way.
Shortly after erecting our pop up banner, we had our first passengers which included a lovely Doodle-dog called Betty because we are very much dog-friendly! After this first run, we had a steady stream of passengers for the duration of the event.
At 11:30am, we made our way to the on site cottage to collect Santa Claus and his elves. It was our important duty to safely deliver Santa Claus to his tent, so that he could meet the children of Stockton, take their Christmas gift requests and share some delicious sweets.
While Santa was busy chatting to the families, Trixie was busy taking people for tours around the park and signposting people to Santa’s location so that they did not miss out.
Once Santa had greeted everyone, we had he pleasure of taking Santa back to Mrs Claus but not the direct route – we travelled back along the avenue of trees so that Santa could send seasons greetings to all of the stalls, stall holders, customers and park users.
We continued to deliver trishaw rides around the park until 1:45pm, when the fair had officially come to an end and footfall was dwindling.. Not to mention, we were both incredibly cold and needed a hot drink to help us defrost!
Thank you to everyone who trusted us to take them around the park on the trishaw. Thank you to everyone who stopped to speak to us, waved as we passed by, acknowledged the passengers and jumped out of our way to avoid a collision!
Thank you to Friends of Ropner Park for inviting Cycling Without Age Stockton on Tees back again, giving us an opportunity to raise funds to help deliver our project for the community and raise awareness of who we are and what we do.
Lastly, thank you to Santa for making sure we are all on the ‘nice list’!
0 Comments