Saturday 8th May – Cakes and Plants
Sue Kwok
The refreshment stall at the plant sale raised £163.20 which will go to Traidcraft Exchange whose work, helping support struggling communities around the world, is more important than ever during the pandemic. And not only did we raise money for a very worthy cause but many people said how much they appreciated, once again, being able to sit down and chat with friends over a cup of coffee and a slice of home-made cake, all made possible by the amazing bakers and willing servers at HPC.
Judy East
Sandwiched between two very acceptable days was Saturday 8th May, the day we had decided to do a plant stall. Because we could sell plants outside, no need to worry about covid restrictions, we could have refreshments – we envisaged tables and chairs, people browsing the plants then sitting in the sun with their coffee and cake, having a socially distanced chat with their friends.
The best laid plans…….
To say it rained would be an understatement. It poured. It blew. We had to tie the gazebos down to stop them blowing away. “No one will come” we thought as we set up inside. “We won’t sell a thing”.
We were so wrong.
They came. They bought. They bought plants, they bought coffee and cake, tea and rolls. They chatted – possibly not quite as socially distanced as one might wish, but we had all the doors open and everyone wore the obligatory masks.
The atmosphere was – I think it’s not an exaggeration to say ‘electric’. We were back in church, we were raising money for our charities, it felt so like old times, something we haven’t been able to do for over a year. We saw people we hadn’t met for so long, were able to catch up, or just notice with relief that “we’re still here, still OK”.
Everyone had been so generous in giving us plants that we were still selling on Sunday morning!
We raised a wonderful £600. Whilst that was the point, to raise money, at the same time, it wasn’t the point, or it stopped being the point, once people got together. Just like our Spring Fairs the real point was community.
PS from Jenny Bunn
And I would like to thank all the wonderful helpers on the plant stall last Saturday, Judy, Gaynor , Meg and Lorna. It was a very successful day