COMMUNITY FUN DAY
Saturday 13th July 2019
- Celebration and fun unite our diverse community
- The Fun Day raises £3750 for St George’s Hospital
Perfect weather, a great crowd and loads to see and do made the Community Fun Day on 13th July very special. Many hundreds of people from all faiths and cultures flocked in. The Fun Day is organised by the Al Risalah Trust schools, St Augustine’s Church, Tooting and the Balham and Tooting Community Association (BATCA).
People spent generously, leading to £3750 being raised to donate to St George’s Hospital. This brings the sum raised for St George’s from Fun Days over the years to more than £28,000.
There were fun activities galore. Top draws were Tooting Healthy Streets’ ‘play street’, where children revelled in street games, and penalty shootouts from Balham Football Club. They loved the goats and sheep from Kingston City Farm, bungee jumping, the giant slide and non-stop table tennis from Ernest Bevin College. ‘Make your own smoothie’ bikes were a great attraction.
Somali, Caribbean, Arab and Indo Pak food were a great draw, along with home made cakes at the refreshment stalls run by the Al Risalah Trust schools and local churches.
Tooting’s community groups brought their messages to a wider public – on homelessness, climate change, autism, supporting families and more. NHS teams raised awareness on living healthily and coping with health problems. Local history group Summerstown 182 made a glorious splash of yellow as people made fabric daffodils to celebrate 1870s local horticulturalist Peter Barr , the ‘Daffodil King’.
Rosena Allin-Khan, MP for Tooting, Jane Cooper, Mayor of Wandsworth, and the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, Bishop of Southwark, spoke praising the Fun Day’s community spirit.
The £3750 donated to St George’s will be used to fund a new cardiac monitor for children’s wards and contribute to the cost of a specialised chair for elderly patients to allow them to spend more time out of bed, and promote their recovery.
Rosena Allin-Khan MP said:
“I’m always happy to be here in the heart of the community at the Community Fun Day. It typifies this incredibly special community, where everyone comes together regardless of their race or political group.”
We thank our sponsors, Balham FC, Ernest Bevin College, Managing Care Ltd, the Salvation Army, Spice Village, Barkers’ Chemist, Minar Jewellers, Tooting Daily PRSS and Tooting Rotary Club
