Galley Hill Residents Association along with the Stony Stratford Community Church have resumed the bi-monthly litter pick on Galley Hill. The rubbish collecting session on 14th November attracted several of the estates residents who helped collect several bags of litter to tidy our area.
Thanks to those who attended and helped make our part of Milton Keynes a little tidier.
At 10:45 am members of GHRA, residents from Galley Hill and the volunteers from Stony Stratford Community Church met outside St. Mary St. Giles School to start our bi-monthly litter pick. We each went off in teams or pairs and set about picking up the litter. The whole thing is scheduled as just an hour out of everybody’s time and makes a difference around our area.
The Stony Stratford Community Church do a lot around the local area, and have several events planned over the Christmas period. Here is a list of their planned events.
A big thank you to all who turned up to help with the litter pick today.
Hope to see some of you at our GHRA events too – the GHRA Committee
Our events team have been working hard on recent events and have managed to organise 3 fantastic events for the residents of Galley Hill. We take a quick look back at each of them here, while looking forward to more to come this year.
The first major event of the year for the GHRA events team was a huge undertaking, as they organised an Easter Egg Hunt. The event was part funded by the Galley Hill Residents Association using funds from the grants given by the local Council. A small fee was asked to secure a place on the day, and we expected a modest turnout of 20-30 children and eggs were purchased to cover that amount.
As time went on the numbers grew, and soon we had over 40 children booked in for the Egg Hunt and crafting, more eggs had to be bought. And it continued to grow until we eventually had 68 children pre-booked for the event, and had some eggs in reserve for those who had promised to turn up on the day.
On the morning of the day, there were still last minute preparations to be done, as the decision had been made to make it a Peter Rabbit themed hunt. To win an egg the children would need to find several characters from the books around the St. Mary St. Giles School playground which the Headmaster had kindly agreed to let us use for the event. So characters were printed and wipe clean laminated hunt tick sheets made.
Finally the time was upon us to set up, and our team of eager volunteers (nobody was press-ganged, honestly) arrived at the school and set up craft tables, hid the characters and put on the display of eggs and the special fluffy bunny prizes for the Golden Egg Draw.
Our Treasurer, Roy, togerther with Flitton Court Rep Paul, found their usual places behind the counter serving refreshments: free tea, coffee and biscuits for the adults and fruit squash drinks for the children.
And the Galley Hill Residents Association Easter Egg Hunt 2018 began in earnest. With children and adults alike enjoying the Egg Hunt and Crafts which had been laid on, where the children got to make a paper plate into a rabbit face, and add cress seeds inside a cup with rabbit ears to grow hair (or hare maybe?)
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A couple of hours and 70 odd Easter Eggs handed out later, it was all over -for the families who attended anyway. Our volunteers had the unenviable task of clearing away and putting the school back to how they’d found it before their day was done. A big thank you to Sue Titchmarsh and Kate Nicholls for organising the GHRA Easter Egg Hunt, but equally huge thanks to the backroom guys and gals, Roy, Joy, and Sue (another one) who were there helping to organise the event before the day and on the day, they are all stars.
Finally, thank you to all the families who attended the event and made it a successful day. We received some very positive feedback from so many people who said they had enjoyed the day. We also wish to give a special thanks to those who allowed us to use their childrens’ pictures to make this post.
As soon as the Easter Egg Hunt was over the preparations started for the first ever GHRA Coffee evening. This event was planned to complement the popular coffee mornings, to give those who work a chance to socialise with their neighbours. Free tea, coffee, biscuits and cakes were on offer at the Small Meeting place and attracted a few of the residents to attend.
Roy once again acted as our barista and was ably assisted by Paul who is his regular helper on the weekly Tuesday Coffee Mornings.
Thank you to all who attended and to our dynamic duo for making the beverages for everyone.
Our latest organised event was the Litter Pick around Galley Hill on the 8th of April. This event was given an extra boost by the volunteers from the Stony Stratford Community Church, who helped organise and run the event, which will be a bi-monthly event going forward. On the day all the volunteers gathered at the parking bay outside St. Mary St. Giles School at 10:45 ready for an hour’s litter pick.
Once Kate had organised the teams, we all set off and started litter picking in our designated courts and areas around Galley Hill. An hour later we all dropped off our litter bags in the agreed area for MK Council to collect for disposal.
All the volunteers gathered to show a job well done and were invited back to Sue and Doug’s for tea, coffee and biscuits
A huge thank you to Stony Stratford Community Church for bringing along their helpers and their equipment to help the residents of Galley Hill clean up the area we live in.
Thank You to everyone who has volunteered, helped, and supported our recent events, we have more planned for this year so keep coming back for information on our events, and subscribe to our newsletter here.
Thank you all, from the Galley Hill Residents Association Committee.
People
| Present | Absent |
| NF: Nyomie Flecknell (Chair)
JS: Joy Sumner (Secretary) RA: Roy Adams (Treasurer) MA: Mick Allsopp DaT: David Tavener DoT: Doug Titchmarsh |
No one |
Actions
| Action | On? | Date Set | Update |
| Handover discussion for relevant communications | Doug T/ Dave T | 2016-11-30 | |
| Update the constitution as noted in minutes | Joy S | 2016-11-30 | |
| Discuss registering GHRA with the council | Nyomie F | 2016-11-30 | |
| Investigate possibilities for a GHRA domain | Doug T | 2016-11-30 | |
| Investigate options for a GHRA bank account | Roy A | 2016-11-30 | |
| Find volunteers for court reps | Dave T | 2016-11-30 | |
| Scan and circulate email with first copy of Noose | Mike A | 2016-11-30 | |
| Send around date of next SSTC meeting | Mike A | 2016-11-30 | |
| For General Meeting of GHRA, make a list to see if there is interest in a children’s club | Nyomie F | 2016-11-30 | |
| Talk to Sue about the potential for using the school in the summer | Nyomie F | 2016-11-30 | |
| Investigate possible funding for a GH party for MK’s 50th. | Mike A | 2016-11-30 | |
| Book venue for next meeting | Mike A | 2016-11-30 | |
| Update on discussions with Council about making a bench for GH from the tree felled from GH. | Mike A | 2016-11-30 |
Thank you to everyone who turned up to the GHRA’s second weekly coffee morning for a coffee and chat on Tuesday, we were again very pleased by the response. We are very lucky to have the support of Pastor Kumi and the facilities at the venue, he has confirmed our coffee morning and monthly meeting for the forthcoming year. We hope to develop more ideas that our community can adopt such as social evenings, bingo, whist drive, maybe a disco, anything is possible given time.
Someone asked if they could bring along friends who are not resident on Galley Hill and this of course is most welcome, the more the merrier.
The committee are still seeking court reps and are grateful to Vicky for volunteering to support Redbourne Court, we just need a volunteer for Rovely and Stanbridge now if any of you are keen to help.
We would like to remind everyone that there is a general meeting this Thursday (16th March 2017) at 19:00 in the Galley Hill Small Meeting Place above the shop.
Thanks to everyone who helped out today, hope to see you at one of the Galley Hill coffee mornings soon.
Nyomie, Mick, Roy & David.
