OVER £1,000 was raised in support of the Westbury Leigh Community Project as people donated generously while visiting the jubilee fair and yarn bombing at the Westbury Leigh Church Hall (WLCH) earlier this month.
The church grounds hosted a jubilee fair filled with games for children, a cake bake-off, and a variety of stalls selling local products – but the star of the show was the yarn bombing as the church grounds were filled with a variety of different pieces celebrating Her Majesty’s 70-year reign. The event raised £1,101.50 in total for the Westbury Leigh community project.
The church grounds were ‘yarn-bombed’ in a Jubilee style, with corgis, union jack flags, crowns and the organiser and Westbury Leigh Community Project committee member, Marisa Befoh, says the event took months of preparation.
She said, “Conception for the yarn bombing started in late February. I wanted to do something different that would get the public together and hopefully create some smiles and seeing people enjoying themselves on the day was really rewarding!
“I couldn’t do this on my own of course – I had help from the volunteers from the Westbury Leigh Community Project committee, but also members of the public from Westbury (even as far as Salisbury and Radstock), as well as the WLCH Thursday sewing group, Woolly Wednesdays Dilton Marsh group, and Westbury Leigh C of E Primary School all got involved and donated their time and wool to help create this wonderful installation. We also had donations from The Woolery & Center Parcs with materials as well as our own donations.
“A big thank you to Mandy Murray, Corinne Hunter, Elaine & Lyla Sheppard, Lani Hall, Lynne Mason, Vikki Brodie, Anne Archer, Sarah Gaitskell, Alison Thorne, Lynda Blythe, Laura Raisey, Lily Munday, WLCH Thursday Sewing Group, Lynne Vercoe, Penny Hill, Aaron Befoh, Ric Hunter, Andrew Field, David Symonds, Lise Macdermott – thank you all for the most amazing support and help making the yarn bomb installation not just a possibility but a success!”
Marisa has big plans for the Westbury yarn bombers, and she is already making plans for Remembrance Day.
“We have plans to yarn bomb the tops of post boxes in Westbury and the surrounding area for a Remembrance Day tribute and (if we can get enough poppies and volunteers) we have plans to do a display. Westbury yarn bombers will leave a poster with a QR code on each post top box for anyone who wishes to donate to the British Legion.
“Many other random acts will come with this amazing group of volunteers who each will want to support our communities, have their own events, and want to raise money for their charities and that’s all we will be about.”
The organiser of the Westbury Leigh jubilee fete, Andrew Thomas, said, “The Westbury Leigh jubilee fete was a great success, and this was due not only to the generous people of the village who attended, the committee who worked hard to organise and run the fete, but also the people from across the village and indeed the town, who volunteered their labour, contributed to the yarn bombing or prizes to the raffle, as well as bits and pieces of equipment and even straw bales. The Westbury Leigh Community Project would like to thank all those that contributed to ensuring the fete was such an enjoyable event for all those who attended.”
If you would like to get involved with the Westbury Yarn Bombers, you can join their Facebook group by searching their name or by emailing Marisa at marisa.befoh@gmail.com.
Marisa added, “You don’t have to know how to crochet or knit, you can just do pompoms or what you feel you can do to join in the fun. You also don’t have to have Facebook as I can call or email patterns over and have a tea and catch up whenever you can or just pop into our monthly meeting.
“We welcome your work by post as well so please do join the Westbury Yarn Bombers!”
