The Bacon Bap Men!
April 6th, 2009
This will be the third year I have supported the walk through providing the bacon baps, veggie alternatives and refreshments for the walkers on their return to Reaseheath.
This year I will have Steven Holmes helping to organize the refreshments for the event, he has recently joined the Hospice in post as Assistant Facilities Manager.
The organization of the refreshments takes the following format of conversations and meetings:
Phil: So Steven one of our main fundraising events each year is the Midnight Walk held in June.
Steven: What part do we play in organizing it?
Phil: We have the pleasure of producing 1750 bacon baps and refreshments. Well, not ALL bacon - we do have some vegetarians in that figure where we provide a suitable alternative.
Steven: That some bacon baps and tea required then, do we have help?
Phil: We get fantastic support from very willing volunteers. We get very lively ladies who make the whole experience enjoyable from start to finish, and their stamina is commendable.
Steven: Sounds great when do we start working on it?
Phil: Well, we meet with the fundraising team to discuss final numbers in May then get all the ordering completed. We order all the equipment needed to set up the event.
Steven: Straightforward enough so far.
Phil: That’s just the mundane bit to start with. Once we have all that in place the fundraisers hold a site meeting at Reaseheath with all the volunteers. We attend this and meet our willing bunch of ladies and gents and talk through the evening with them, emphasizing they should bring warm clothing and so on as it is a long night and can get really chilly.
Steven: So after that then it’s the night itself?
Phil: Yes that’s all the pre organization until the day itself. We start about 0900hrs on the Saturday, getting all the equipment and rations together. Then we take it all to Reaseheath and start to organize the set up. We have a couple of hours break then at approximately 1700hrs the volunteers start to arrive. We give them a health and safety brief then set them to work. Our first lot of bacon baps go to the volunteers and police who man the stations along the walk. After they have been fed and watered, the walkers start to arrive and we offer a hot drink whilst they wait for registration.
By this time the atmosphere starts buzzing and there is an air of excitement around the field. The ladies have their warm up session (I like to join in with this) before setting off.
We provide refreshments for the volunteers, then prepare for the walkers return at approximately 0400hrs Sunday morning. All through the night Cheshire FM keeps us up to date with the ladies’ progress. We become really busy serving refreshments until the last lady is served then we clean up the area, pack all the items away and we then take ourselves home to bed at approximately 0900hrs Sunday morning, satisfied we have done our bit to support all those ladies doing the walk.
Steven: Is that it then?
Phil: Oh yes - but only till next year……………………………………..and that’s another story!
Look forwarding to serving all you ladies on the night, see you there
Regards
Phil and Steven
Hi All