It was at 12.10 this afternoon when I rolled up at the ROWE Community Centre on Isleworth's Worton estate, straight from Church. Usually ten minutes after the start of an event like this little would be going on beyond a few late arrivals hastily setting up their stalls.
And yet the ROWE Fun Day, with its Doctor Who theme, was already in full swing, with many kids outside enjoying the rides and others having their photos taken inside the Community Centre. Teas, coffees, cold drinks and hot dogs were being sold and members of the Committee were walking around the site selling raffle tickets (I was later to win a meal for two but I can assure everyone it was kosher - I'd left by the time the raffle was drawn!).
MC Andrews announces the raffle______________________________
ICG Committee members Tricia Doran and Cheryl-Ann Khan had set up a stall selling clothes, a tombola and a "prize every time" duck-fishing thing. Another few quid for the group's coffers, always welcome.
Back inside the building I made a new friend (photo to follow as soon as my daughter gets time to show me how to transfer it across).
Even cybermen were welcome at the event______________________________
Organising a vibrant residents' organisation has always been something of a challenge for the Committee of ROWE (Residents of Worton Estate). There have always been good people there to do the work, but usually just enough of them to achieve critical mass. However, possibly as a defensive reaction to the local political situation, ROWE seems to becoming more proactive and determined than ever before. The dozen or so people who were circulating around the event selling raffle tickets, providing food and drinks and generally marshaling events worked hard, and the very reasonable turnout was just reward for their efforts.
One of the many stalls at the Fun Day ________________________________________
Although I don't actually live on Worton I have a long historical association with the estate. My father was raised in Octavia Road, opposite the Green, and my aunt, uncle and cousins lived there until the middle of the 1990s. As a teenager I would encounter many of the youths from the estate, not always on friendly terms, at the youth club that was held every Monday night in the Hall at Isleworth Congregational, which I now once again attend.
Great food and drinks were on sale in the Community Centre________________________________________
I feel honoured to have been asked to continue my association with ROWE after ceasing to be a ward councillor in May, and was pleased to have the opportunity to help out around the place today.
Events like this reassure me that the spirit of the community in Isleworth will survive whatever short-term challenges are thrown our way.
5 comments:
I've little time for you or your politics but whoever the worm was that published the fact that you have entered into an IVA deserves a good squashing.
It's fairly common knowledge amongst my friends and colleagues Cheesed Off and not unknown amongst my opponents.
So the Labour Party thinks having an IVA is the mark of a bad person or something to be looked down upon?
I wonder if they shared that view with all the working class voters, who are the ones who have been hit hardest by the recession and whose support they seek, during the recent local elections?
What insufferable hypocrites and snobs these people truly are.
Phill everyone who knows you knows you put your work in the community first and don't take this the wrong way but some of us think you could have been more effective if you had dedicated some of your time to providing some security for yourself and your family. I bet the people criticisng you don't live in an overcrowded flat on a sink estate in fact I believe Vanessa Smith bought her council house as soon as Thatcher introduced the right to buy and she's allways jetting off to Australia but criticises you for taking an annual winter holiday in Portugal. Hypocrites doesn't even begin to cover it.
You could be right freespirit but what's is in the past is in the past. And I guess if the flat becomes too crowded I could always spend some time at my holiday home in Portugal, eh?
:o)
Must agree with Cheesed Off, 'B Abbott' is certainly a very slimy individual.
Sad to hear about Ray Ferguson also.
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