Sal Kenward – Sandgate Society
This is just some of the feedback we have received from our “Stratospheric” Sandgate Safari on Saturday! “Best community day ever”, “Met new neighbours for the first time”, “This HAS to be an annual event”, “Haven’t seen so many happy faces for a long, long time” and “Sandgate is BUZZING!”
The publicity generated by social media brought visitors from the Marsh, Ashford, Dover – and even a family who came from Brixton on the train (and how they got it all home we will never know, but they say they would like to come every year!).
This sale raised around £500 for the Society, as well as lot of money from other stallholders for charities such as the MS Society, British Heart Foundation to name but two.
There were 40 stalls in the end, mostly reporting at least a 75% sale of treasures. The pubs and coffee shops were queuing as happy shoppers refreshed themselves in-between bargain hunting, and we would especially like to thank The Providence Inne who were very helpful to us as our stall expanded and the throng of visitors spilled out over their forecourt!
We would like to give a massive thank you to Gemma Adams who organised this event from the start and even attempted to walk round all the stalls on the day (and bag herself a new bike at the same time!). Gemma and Guy Valentine-Guy set themselves a very high bar with the technical compilation of the interactive map as well as the physical one.
This event was the idea of our member Amanda Mason – thank you Amanda, inspired!
We would also like to thank the rest of the Events Team (Liz, Giles, Amanda and Vicki) for hours of sorting, pricing and cataloguing. Without this back up, the Event would not have been such an incredible success.
Three things to consider – firstly, we listen to our members, so if you have an idea for an event, please let us know. And secondly, if we hold it next year and you are on the outskirts of our village please let us know and we can ask permission from shops to allow you a High Street stall. And lastly, if you are thinking of throwing something out, think again as there is always next year!
Final thank you to all our members for supporting this inaugural event and we hope to see you at our next event, the summer picnic, details to be confirmed as soon as we can confirm a date. If you want to find out more about the Sandgate Society and what it does – check out: https://sandgatesociety.com
