Grand Event on the Park

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Grove's Grand Event - Tops £6'500 for Charity

Picture Left to right: Conrad Ashby (tfd member), Sarah Bellis (tfd) Lisa Auchinvole (tfd), Claire Styles (WILA), Liz Cornish (H&D House), John Garvey (Wantage Rotary Club), Mary Boullin (H&D House), Steve Head (Grove Business Centre), Debra Mattingley (Grove Business Centre), Ray Collins (tfd member)

Helen & Douglas House Hospice received a cheque for £6,500 this week from the organisers and team of contributors of Grove’s Grand Event staged at Grove Technology Park on the August Bank Holiday weekend.

The cheque presentation was made by Steve Head of Grove 2000 PLC and Lisa Auchinvole of TFD Health & Fitness, principal organisers of the high profile event that attracted more than 6,000 visitors to the Park for a day of entertainment and fun. The cheque was received at a special ceremony by Liz Cornish, Head of Care and Mary Boullin, Community Fundraiser for the Oxford-based Hospice.

The occasion was the culmination of several months of fundraising, spear-headed by the raffle of a brand new Ford Ka that was drawn during the finale of the Grand Event and won by an Abingdon resident. Co-sponsors WILA UK organised a 5K Family Fun Run and Wantage Rotary Club organised the BBQ that contributed to the charity. Members of TFD, Ray Collins from PB Ledbury in Wantage, undertook a fund-raising solo Quadruple Triathlon during a non-stop 12-hour stint at the TFD gym and Conrad Ashby raised sponsorship from friends and colleagues at Thames Water through his efforts in the London Triathlon in August this year.

“The day is still being talked about as a fantastic community event, raising much local awareness about the activities on the Park and about the magnificent work of Helen & Douglas House Hospice”
says Lisa Auchinvole.

“Probably the most significant spin-off was the interaction throughout the day between the people of our community and local businesses – hopefully that will have lasting effect”
says Steve Head.

“Without the encouragement of local business, the day would have been a very different story. We were grateful for their whole-hearted support and commitment” added Steve.

What a fantastic day!

The Grand Event on the Park welcomed over 6,500 visitors on Sunday 30th August 2009. The event was inspired by Lisa Auchinvole from tfd health & fitness and Steve Head from Grove Business Centre both at Grove Technology Park, Wantage.

The day worked well in so many ways as it brought the local communities together for a day of fun for adults and children, whilst supporting a very important and needy charity local to us all. Many people commented that they met old friends they haven’t seen for years. Cheryl from Grove said, “Sometimes the people you went to school with become strangers on the same streets but this event gave everyone the opportunity to talk, catch up and become united again”.

Grove Technology Park is no longer ‘just that place on the old airfield’. The park is now home to many new businesses, large and small. tfd health & fitness club opened on the park in 2004, CMS industries built a new building on the park in 2005, EMS moved from the old Limborough Road site in Wantage to their new building on the park in 2008. Bybox, Astro Systems, WILA Group Ltd, CrystalLight Productions, Smiths Accountants, My Home and Calber Facilities Management are just a small selection of the 150 companies who now operate their businesses from Grove Technology Park.

For more information about serviced offices and land available at the park follow this link…
http://www.grovetechpark.com/splash.asp

What else was going on?...

Ten local companies entered teams into the Charity It’s A Knockout Competition on the day. Wantage Chamber of Commerce, The Bell at Grove, The Goodlake Arms in Challow, Helen & Douglas House staff & families, TFD Health & Fitness, CMS Industries and Paul Solerti’s 118 team were amongst the groups who took part in the fun. Big wigs, pencilled moustaches, team t-shirts, kangaroo suits and other interesting costumes were worn by the teams throughout the competition, giving the spectators something to laugh at all day! There were a couple of casualties from the event but as you can see, they were still laughing!

Live bands gave up their time and played to the crowds throughout the day, Irish Folk Music from Wysiwyg, Blind Dog played the blues, Rockit sang hits from the 60’s & 70’s and Purple Heidi gave a great performance with their mainstream cover music.

For more information about the bands please use the contact details below…
Wysiwig John Westwood – details coming soon
Blind Dog Blues Stuart Roper - details coming soon
Rockit Alan Howell - details coming soon
Purple Heidi Ray Percy - details coming soon

• Face painting, puppet shows, mini quad bikes, bouncy slides and castles, sumo wrestling and inflatable assault course for the children
• Families & dogs welcomed & very well behaved!
• Classic car display, MG’s, AC Cobra, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Racing Mini & more
• Racing car displays included Williams F1, Robs Lamplough’s March F1, Paul Rees’ 2009 Formula Palmer Audi racing car
• Don Summers from Grove arranged for the cockpit of the DC3 aircraft used in WWII to be brought to the event. For just 50p for charity, mums, dads & children were able to climb into the cockpit too. Don, also arranged for the full size DC3 screen set to be loaned to tfd health & fitness club from RAF Whelford museum. It was erected inside tfd in 2005 and was used on the set in the famous film, The Band of Brothers.
• Heart FM joined in the day and ran live interviews by children with Palmer Audi racing driver Paul Rees. The interviews will soon be available to listen to live from the Heart FM web site.
• Volunteers from Helen & Douglas House shop in Wantage ran teddy bear tombola to add to the charity fund and were giving away balloons to children on the day.

   

Winner of the car picked out by Sister Francis, founder of Helen & Douglas House was Sue Allred from Abingdon!

When Sue received the call on Sunday, she was delighted to hear the news and couldn’t wait to tell all her family and friends. Amongst Sue’s family is Ray Collins from PB Ledbury of Wantage and member of tfd health & fitness who completed a quadruple triathlon over 12 hours in the gym in June this year, raising money for Helen & Douglas House.

Grand Event 5km Family Fun Run results are:

Male	Female
1st Place Winner John Peake Race Number: 060 | Time: 20:38 hrs	1st Place - Overall Place 14th Vivienne Harrington Race Number: 039 | Time: 26:39
2nd Place Graham Wiggins Race Number: 072 | Time: 22:36	2nd Place - Overall Place 17th Rachel Davey Race Number: 079 | Time: 27:39
3rd Place James Ashwin Race Number: 057 | Time 22:58	3rd Place Bayley Eyley - Overall Place 22nd Race Number: 067 | Time: 28:28

To see times for all runners, please click here...

The charity…

Helen & Douglas House hospice in Oxford will receive all proceeds from the day which included profits from the sale of raffle tickets for a brand new ford KA, stall holders donations, entry fees, fun activities and lots more.

A significant amount was donated to the overall Helen & Douglas House fund by Ray Collins & Conrad Ashby from tfd health & fitness as well as the Wantage Rotary Club.

In June 2009, Ray Collins who lives in Wantage and works at PB Ledbury on Newbury Street Wantage, embarked on a 12 hour long challenge to complete four indoor triathlons. In previous years Ray has raised funds for Diabetes UK and Fitzwaryn School in Wantage with his gym challenges at tfd.

Conrad Ashby of Wantage and also member of tfd collected sponsorship money for the charity after he completed the London Triathlon at the beginning of August.

The Wantage Rotary Club provided the voluntary manpower and equipment for the BBQ at the Grand Event. All ingredients were purchased locally and every penny from the profits was donated to the charity fund.

For more information on the amazing work the Wantage Rotary Club do for local and worldwide charities & disasters follow the link below…
http://www.rotary-ribi.org/clubs/homepage.asp?ClubID=576

For more information about Helen & Douglas House and the support they offer to families needing their support please click on the link below…
http://www.helenanddouglas.org.uk/

Finally, a huge thank you to everyone who helped, attended, purchased raffle tickets and made donations of time and or money to make this event a success!

Thank you all from the Grand Event Team,

Lisa Auchinvole & Sarah Bellis TFD Health & Fitness
Steve Head, Debra Jacobson & Simon Aimes Grove Business Centre
Claire Styles WILA Group