We are pleased to report that our second Community Fete in George Street Park on Sunday 28th June 2026 afternoon was a resounding success and possibly even better than our first in 2024! The weather was favourable to us – not raining and not too hot! It was a brilliant opportunity to engage with the local community (there was a steady stream of folks attending) and make and develop connections. We were particularly pleased to see crosslinks of people attending; for example those who come to Messy Babies, and those who come to Community Café. It was also extra special that we had not one Mayor but two in attendance! Councillor Garrick Stevens (new Mayor of Dacorum Borough) and Tom Pedrick (Town Mayor of Berkhamsted) enjoyed browsing the stalls, and chatting with the community and our mission partners.
There was a great variety of free activities on offer – making a seed pot (both Mayors made one and Katie challenged them to a sunflower growing competition!), biscuit decorating, face painting and glitter tattoos, giant games, eco quiz, and lucky dip (complete with creepy crawlies to find). A poster highlighted the range of activities that occur in the church each month, with June 2026 as an example, and another poster highlighted the charities that Sunnyside supports through Gift Day.
Local charity/mission action partners were in attendance again – DENS, Open Door, Royal British Legion, and Liz H (on behalf of LOVED) returned with great stalls. It was great to have new faces along too; The Hospice of St Francis were selling raffle tickets, The Swan Youth Project were doing the facepainting/glitter tattoos, Good News For Everyone (GNFE) had free resources to give out (Charis used one of their leaflets to lead PCC in prayer the following day!), plus Emelie had a stall for Save the Turtles. Sunnyside Rural Trust, The Swan Youth Project and Sunnysiders donated plants in advance so there was a fantastic selection of plants, and Sunnyside gardeners had bagged up compost to sell so the stall holders were kept busy! Alan, the local beekeeper, was a hit again with people studying his observation hive, chatting to him and his helpers, and tasting and then buying his local honey.
The vast array of tasty treats on offer at the refreshments table was splendid and very well received by attendees. There were no charges for refreshments and craft activities although donations were accepted should people wish to give with monies. Someone bought a whole cake! After passing a chunk of money raised to both Sunnyside Rural Trust and The Swan Youth Project, the remainder was put towards Gift Day 2026 – an amazing £295.50! – and will be distributed to Sunnyside’s local charities/mission partners in due course.
Penny H, Katie, Sarah and Paul C (the fete planning team) wish to say a big thank you to all who contributed in any way – whether that was praying, lending us a van (thanks Trevor!), baking a cake, bagging up compost, donating plants, helping to set up, hosting a stall, helping to pack away (particular thanks to Kath and John for assistance at the end when the ladies were tiring and for Neil’s well-timed visit to church to put the bins out but helped as well), or coming to be part of the fete and having good conversations. It was a huge amount of work to plan the event although easier than the first one due to having the 2024 fete planning documents to hand and taking lessons learned into account! We still want to improve for another similar event (although not as soon as next year like Alan the beekeeper suggested!) so would be grateful if everyone (including those unable to attend) could please feedback via this link. https://forms.gle/d13mMXCz6Yc2ApkC8
