Summerfest 2023 Has Record Reward

Pimms Anyone? Mayflower’s Day In the Sun - if it’s the first Sunday of July, then it must be Billericay Mayflower’s Summerfest.   

We were asked to help out this year by manning an entry gate, and President Roger, President-Elect Patrick, Les, Peter Greene, David and granddaughter Hannah all turned out to help for 2-3 hours.  We were on duty at the main London Road Gate at Sun Corner, and at times, one or other helped out at the Middle Field Gate too.

A Good Show

There were stalls galore, entertainment on the stage with many spectators sitting on the straw bales to enjoy the shows, and many food stalls, some games, and some charity displays.  Amongst them were the Rotary Club of Basildon with two challenges, the Rotary Club of Billericay Town with a coconut shy, District Rotary Youth team publicising their events, and of course, DG David Willis helping out on the District “People of Action” recruitment stand. 

A welcome presence too was Dafydd Helps-Fursse one of the “Oardinary Buoys” and the boat in which they plan to row the Atlantic next year – Yes, right across the Atlantic.  Dafydd had a busy afternoon answering questions and encouraging spectators to support his challenge – which aims to raise £45,000 for charity and good causes.  The Rotary Club of Billericay is buying 10 “pixels” (pictures to go on the boat) at £300.

It Pays to be Good

Entry was free, but there was a suggested donation of £3 per person, all of which was destined for charity.  Some people marched through making sure they didn’t catch anybody’s eye, and others sidled round the back.  But, most people were very willing to handover a few pounds, especially for charity and many gave a £5 or a £10 note and didn’t want change.

The buckets soon filled with notes and coins, and interestingly, many people preferred to use a credit card, or the card on their mobile phones.  Even then, many offered more than the £3 suggestion.
Billericay people are so generous!

Sum(ing it) UP

We have recently purchased two credit card readers from SumUP so it was interesting to use Mayflower’s two SumUP readers “in anger”.

Veterans Peter and Les were used to these devices but novices President Roger and President-Elect Patrick, had never used them before.  A few minutes “demo” and instruction, and they were off!  No problems!  Roger even setting records for the speed at which he processed people’s payments.

Breaking Records

There seemed to be many more people than the last event (maybe helped by the weather?).   This impression was confirmed by reports from Mayflower members of higher donations on the gate than last year – we counted nearly £5700 on the card readers without considering the cash paid.

Mayflower President Mark Chambers commented “Thank you and your team for your assistance on Sunday which helped immensely by enabling one gate to be covered for a key period.   By all accounts this is looking like the best Summerfest ever.  The weather was near perfect, the crowds came, we had a lot of happy customers and ... we might beat our record for money raised.
Can you please pass on my best wishes to the Billericay members who assisted including Patrick for the loan of tables and chairs.”
President Roger responded “Well done to you for all the organisation and all the work you and everyone put in to make it a success”.