Having supported the Conquest Equestrian Centre with our Great Croquet Challenge earlier this summer, we were keen to help the charity again so took a stand at their Open Day on 26 September. We decided to run a tombola stand with all prizes donated by our generous staff so that every penny raised from ticket sales went to Conquest.
The weather was wonderful and the turnout was apparently much bigger than expected. As well as manning our own stand we enjoyed meeting owls, meer cats and of course the Conquest ponies. We were also privileged to watch an extraordinary demonstration by the Paralympic Gold Medal Winner Deb Criddle. Deb is a Taunton girl who having ridden before a serious accident then began to ride again thanks to the RDA at Conquest. Her skills really brought home what the Conquest Centre can achieve and what a worthwhile cause it is to support.
We like to make our attendance at events of this sort educational if we can and the Open Day was no exception. We learned that folding raffle tickets takes a long time. We also learned that if you use very tall people to hang banners before the event it’s a good idea to ensure the same tall people are still there when you need to get them down! Best of all we discovered that being there right at the end of the day meant we could go home with some amazing cake! We provided Slee Blackwell carrier bags to all our prize winners and to those who didn’t win but had rather a lot to carry.
And best of all we raised £182.00. A lot of hard work was put in by staff from our Taunton office, but it was well worth the effort. We’re proud to be part of the Taunton community and to have had another opportunity to support a great local charity.