Teddy Bear Parachute Jump draws crowds at the Bishop's Cleeve Street Fair
- by Kelly Owen
- •
- 14 Jun, 2017
- •
Mike the Knight sails to victory!
Sunday 11 June 2017 saw the annual Bishop's Cleeve Street Fair here in our wonderful village.
Every year, we invite people to enter teddy bears (or any stuffed toy!) into the Teddy Bear Parachute Jump. Designs are left to the entrants, and we have two prizes: for best jump and best design. At just £1 per entry, we saw the launch of a whopping 74 teddies off the church roof. The money raised goes straight to the Bishop's Cleeve Street Fair to support the funding of next year's event.
We were blessed with a beautifully warm afternoon with a gusty breeze, which seemed to go in most of the jumpers' favours! It took nearly an hour to launch all 74 bears off the roof, each given a fantastic introduction by our compare, Robey. Most bears made it to the ground without mishap, although poor 'Super Penguin' has yet to be retrieved from a tall tree in a garden behind the church!
Every year, we invite people to enter teddy bears (or any stuffed toy!) into the Teddy Bear Parachute Jump. Designs are left to the entrants, and we have two prizes: for best jump and best design. At just £1 per entry, we saw the launch of a whopping 74 teddies off the church roof. The money raised goes straight to the Bishop's Cleeve Street Fair to support the funding of next year's event.
We were blessed with a beautifully warm afternoon with a gusty breeze, which seemed to go in most of the jumpers' favours! It took nearly an hour to launch all 74 bears off the roof, each given a fantastic introduction by our compare, Robey. Most bears made it to the ground without mishap, although poor 'Super Penguin' has yet to be retrieved from a tall tree in a garden behind the church!
We saw entries of all shapes and sizes, but our biggest entrant was 'Basil the Bomber' with a huge Ikea bag parachute (pictured above).
Another impressive jumper was 'Bumpy Dog', which travelled all the way from Mansfield, Notts, to jump in support of a local hospice charity.
Another notable entry was our oldest competitor, 'Bunny', a 30-year-old teddy jumping for the first time this year and we're glad had a safe journey down to the ground!
We think every teddy did brilliantly, but, after much deliberation, the judges decided the overall winners were:
'Mike the Knight' who won the prize for 'best jump' and one of the Brownie's bears won the prize for the 'best parachute'.
Another impressive jumper was 'Bumpy Dog', which travelled all the way from Mansfield, Notts, to jump in support of a local hospice charity.
Another notable entry was our oldest competitor, 'Bunny', a 30-year-old teddy jumping for the first time this year and we're glad had a safe journey down to the ground!
We think every teddy did brilliantly, but, after much deliberation, the judges decided the overall winners were:
'Mike the Knight' who won the prize for 'best jump' and one of the Brownie's bears won the prize for the 'best parachute'.
This is always such a fun family event and it wouldn't happen without all the support from some fantastic people and the local community. We'd particularly like to thank:
- our organisers, Andrew & Marion Young
- our parachute jump launchers, Mat Bevan and Rick Arnold
- our fantastic compere, Robey Jenkins
- the Brownies' teddy retrieval and medical assistance team (thankfully, no teddies were hurt during the event!)
- our judging panel
- our churchwarden team for their support and advice
- local shops for helping promote the event by displaying our posters
- the small 'army' of helpers in the Church Cafe for their excellent hospitality keeping the coffee and cake flowing!
Highlights from the presentation by the Mission Partner team about the work of the David Dale Shyogwe Trust in Rwanda.
Representatives of the North Cotswold Foodbank, Philip Cule and Rhian Morgan, attended The Trussell Trust National Conference Update held in Birmingham on 17 May 2017.
The keynote address was from John Kirkby, founder of Christians Against Poverty (CAP) who talked about the growth in CAP services since it was founded. There are now 20,000 people a year seeking help and wanting to be released from a life of debt, unemployment, addiction, hunger and poverty.
John said, “Be generous in spirit as the world gets larger. Charity yields a high return. Don’t just sit there watching the wind. Do your own work helping others. Don’t stare at the clouds; get on with your life.”
You never know...
Just maybe...
The next...
...will become a life changer.
To read more about the conference update, please see the CAP blog post - CAP joins forces with The Trussell Trust to help more people in crisis
Please see our Mission Partners page to find out more about our mission work at the North Cotswold Foodbank and how you can get involved.
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Information about our involvement in the Thy Kingdom Come prayer initiative
Welcome to our new website!
Our aim has been to create a website that is not only easy to use and provides useful information about our church and activities, but also reflects our values and priorities as we work to transform lives through Christ's love.
If you're new to the area and want to find out more about us, the Our Life Together section will give you a good idea of who we are. Our Service Times page gives details of the different services we offer.
We have a dedicated section for children and families , which covers the main groups and activities we provide for children, young people and families - such as our Sunday groups, holiday club and our popular baby and toddler group.
We, of course, have provided all you need to know about holding a baptism, wedding or funeral at St Michael's and how to contact us.
The blog is a new feature that will enable us to share what we're doing, along with our newsletter which you can also view and download from the News page.
As well as our website and blog, we also have a Facebook page where we regularly share church news. Our Facebook group is also available to anyone looking for a more private space to share discussion and news with other church members.
Finally, we'd like to offer our sincere thanks to the team at Cotswold Web Services for the most generous donation of website, and to Kelly at Ultimate Proof for her time in pulling the content together. The website has been created at no cost to the church and we hope you'll find it a useful resource.
Our aim has been to create a website that is not only easy to use and provides useful information about our church and activities, but also reflects our values and priorities as we work to transform lives through Christ's love.
If you're new to the area and want to find out more about us, the Our Life Together section will give you a good idea of who we are. Our Service Times page gives details of the different services we offer.
We have a dedicated section for children and families , which covers the main groups and activities we provide for children, young people and families - such as our Sunday groups, holiday club and our popular baby and toddler group.
We, of course, have provided all you need to know about holding a baptism, wedding or funeral at St Michael's and how to contact us.
The blog is a new feature that will enable us to share what we're doing, along with our newsletter which you can also view and download from the News page.
As well as our website and blog, we also have a Facebook page where we regularly share church news. Our Facebook group is also available to anyone looking for a more private space to share discussion and news with other church members.
Finally, we'd like to offer our sincere thanks to the team at Cotswold Web Services for the most generous donation of website, and to Kelly at Ultimate Proof for her time in pulling the content together. The website has been created at no cost to the church and we hope you'll find it a useful resource.