Town councillor Gloria Copley reflects on the events that make Wellington special

– and the hundreds of volunteers who make them happen

WELLINGTON is a lovely place to live and in spite of the sad news of the closure of two banks has much to offer.

There can be few towns the size of Wellington that have such fabulous happenings during the year. To a large extent these happenings are the result of the dedicated hard work of teams of volunteers who put hours of toil into producing events that few other towns of this size would contemplate. It would be impossible to name all of the people involved.

At the beginning of May we had May Day in the Park when our beautiful park was alive with people meeting up with friends, admiring the flowers and trees, and buying from the many stalls.

That event coincided with the beginning of the concert season, organised by the Friends of the Park, when every Sunday afternoon a different musical group gave a concert for two hours.

The ambience was wonderful – gazebos had been set up, ice creams and drinks could be purchased from a refreshments stall, and there was a bric-a-brac and book stall. The concerts were free and people were just asked to put coins into a tin to help with expenses.

The annual street fair at the beginning of June is another noteworthy event, with volunteers doing an invaluable job. They manned the barriers, set up and took down stalls, picked up litter and cleaned away at the end of the day.

A wide variety of goods was on sale – plants, books, toys, clothes, sweets, jewellery and all sorts of delicious food and beer. There was also a bouncy castle for the children and day-long entertainment. It was clear that everyone was having a good time.

There were two major happenings in September, the first the food fair at the beginning of the month. It was an amazing happening that brought visitors to the town from far and wide, and established Wellington as a town where excellent food is produced.

As well as visitors it attracted traders from other areas with their local produce to display. In spite of the weather, most stallholders with food to sell were happy with their takings.

Then at the end of the summer in early September came Wellington’s unique Welly Boot throwing competition. It’s doubtful whether anyone anywhere else would have dreamed up such an event!

The field was crowded with people of all ages throwing wellington boots, visiting the stalls, listening to the music and buying food from the stalls. It was a great day out for young and old alike.

September was also the month of Wellington’s Carnival and, as usual, it was spectacular and a credit to all the people who took part in it, involving not only adults but some of the tiniest members of our community and floats from all around the area.

All of the events that have happened this year, and make Wellington a unique place to live, are due to the efforts of hundreds of volunteers who do such a wide variety of jobs. To them we can only say: “Thank you very much, we are greatly indebted to you.”