Defeated but not down-hearted!
Well “L” Day finally came BUT the Locomotion dance record remains firmly in the “Land of Song”. We were a long way off reaching the 1753 dancers that we needed, with our official total being 493…. Still … you know me - ever the optimist! It leaves us something to do when the 15th Anniversary comes around!!
Other positive factors were that the sun shone, everyone enjoyed themselves, The Hands of Love Orphanage raised their profile and some money and at least one new sponsor for one of their orphans.
The media supported us terrifically and there is a news bulletin on tonight on BBC 1 Look North and the ITV local news. The Northern Echo came again and took some footage for their web site, as well as interviewing several of the participants. The Circuit Newspaper came and interviewed people and Alpha Radio visited too. BBC Radio Tees interviewed me from the square this morning and the studio with Darrien on Friday morning. We could not have asked for better support from the media.
The e mail campaign also seemed to work. Thank you for those that took part in this. Darlington Council apparently would not put iton their bulletin board because it was not a council event but this caused a revolt, so it was circulated internally about 4 times I think.
The official count came up with 493 Dancers - (badges handed in and late comers with stickers counted). This compares with 532 who registered to do the event. So I`m not sure what happened to the missing 39 - don`t know whether they did not return or they did not hand in their badges!
As ever - Stagecoach parents and children were upbeat and enthusiastic. Darlington Borough Council events staff were really pleased with the event and would like us to do other events in the future so that is a positive too.
THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HELPED US WITH THIS EVENT - IN ANY WAY - YOU ARE ALL STARS!! Better luck next time!!
July 26th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Well done all of you! I wish I had been there - sounds like it was fantastic fun! x
July 26th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Hi Trudy, It’s a shame the record wasn’t broken but everyone who took part seemed to really enjoy themselves, I know we certainly did & I even got a suntan while trying to persuade people to join us. An 81 year old lady who had signed up at our table came back to see me at the end to tell me how much she had enjoyed herself.
As you say there is always the 15th anniversary!
Lynn Brown & Christian.
July 26th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Yes that old lady was fab. I heard about her from several sources. I think that the youngest participant was 18 months old - the 81 reversed! I can`t get hold of the charity until tomorrow to find out what they made from their collection - mainly because I fell asleep and woke up after it was a decent time to ring them!
The Look North bulletin never appeared, although the ITV one did and I spotted several of you all on it. The BBC reporter warned me, when I rang up with the total that the report had been cut down in time, because we did not break the record but did not say that it had been cut out completely. Never mind - c`est la vie!!
July 27th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Yeah I think I met that old lady. She came up to me at the end and said how fabulous we were and how much had enjoyed herself, she was saying that when all the “young uns” stopped she kept going and was really proud of herself lol