Hi all,

Daffodil weekend this year is

21/22 March 2015

We apologise that this is a long e mail but it aims to give you all the information you need for the weekend. You may want to scan down to get to the bits that may be relevant to you! All of this information will also be displayed outside the village shop along with any updates. If you are a resident of the village you should also receive a hard copy letter with this information.

As you are probably aware this event raises a lot of money for good causes both inside and outside of the village and is also a great way to meet new people, make friends and “give back” in general.

The event is a huge effort for the village - from people running the car parks, serving teas, tidying up through to the land owners letting us use their fields. As a result of all the effort on the weekend itself our small, beautiful village runs more retail outlets than Bluewater! So a huge thanks in advance.

External Charity

In 2015 The 47th Thriplow Daffodil Weekend will be supporting the Beads of Courage programme at Addenbrookes Hospital. The Beads of Courage Programme (set up by an American Oncology Nurse) gives a bead of courage to a child when they receive a treatment, a scan, have a stay in hospital, have Chemotherapy, Radiotherapy, have surgery. These beads give courage to these brave children, and act as a kind of therapy in their own right.

Volunteers: Catering and teas

Daffodil Weekend is the perfect excuse to get baking! And if you love to bake cakes, then please consider donating some for our visitors to enjoy over the Weekend. We hope you will all want to be part of ‘team bakers’. Please, please remember to label your cake though - a good way to do this is to create a ‘flag’ out of a cocktail stick and sticky label.

We would also love to hear from you if you are able to spare a couple of hours to help serve teas in our tea rooms. Our tea room venues are:

· Cricket pavilion: spaces available on the Sunday

· Village Hall: spaces available both on the Saturday and Sunday

· School: if you would like to help with teas at the school, please get in touch with them directly. Tel: 01763 208213

We are looking for 3 extra people who would be willing to be ‘team leaders’ on the Sunday. This role simply means turning up a little earlier in the morning, if you are on first thing, to set up e.g. to switch the urn on, put out the cakes and generally oversee that everything is running smoothly. If you think you could spare approximately 4 hours to do this, then we would very much appreciate hearing from you.

Gill McDonnell would love to hear from you if you can help with catering in any way either by phone on 01763 209180 or email daffodilweekendcatering@PROTECTED

Volunteers: Team Sandwich

Last year we made our own sandwiches which proved a big success. A huge amount of fun was had in making them. If you fancy being part of ‘team sandwich’ then give us a shout. An hour and a half at most is all you need to commit to on either the Friday or Saturday evening. Please contact Katie Hilton by email – wildwoodbss@PROTECTED if you would like to help make sandwiches.

Volunteers: Car parking, bus parking, transport

For many visitors the first impression that they get of Thriplow is when they arrive at the car parks and coach parks. We are very grateful to all the people who take time out of their day and so enthusiastically help with parking and welcoming visitors to our village. An email has already been circulated to request help with parking. If you are able to help, and have not replied or did not receive the initial email, please contact melissa@PROTECTED as soon as possible. Volunteers are only needed for relatively short periods of time and it is a fun way to contribute to the weekend. The village is regularly praised on the warm welcome visitors receive.

An important job that takes place at the end of the day is the village tidy up. This typically involves checking that the car parks are clear (of both people and rubbish) and clearing up any straw that has been used. If you are able to help with this please also email Melissa. The more helpers we have the quicker everyone can get to the pub!

Volunteers: Village tidy up

We will be holding a Village Tidy Up on Sunday 15th March – meet at the Smithy at 2pm. Please come along to help make our village look even more beautiful by picking up litter or generally tidying up – tasks will be assigned when you arrive. For more details contact Neil Rowland Hall

Volunteers: Village Ambassadors

One of the things our visitors really love about Daffodil Weekend is how friendly everyone is. We would like to promote this by creating a new “Ambassador” role. The ambassadors will greet people, help with directions and provide local information – like the Olympic Games Makers only better! This will mean wearing a Daffodil Weekend Jacket and wandering the village or manning the information tent saying hello to people and being generally visible. Help on Friday during the day and on Saturday morning directing stall holders to the correct pitches will also be useful. If you are interested please contact admin@PROTECTED

Stalls at home

Daffodil Weekend offers individuals the opportunity to have a stall at home to raise money for particular charitable causes. However if too many of us focus on our own personal fund raising we will not have the resources to support the main event and we will all lose out. Thus we would greatly appreciate it if you would let us know if you are thinking of having a stall at home by e mailing stalls@PROTECTED and also by offering the main daffodil charity a discretionary 10% of your takings. It would also be useful if you could give us an indication of the amount you raise over the weekend so we can calculate a grand total of money raised for charity.

If you wish to run a commercial stall then please apply in a formal manner through the website

Open gardens

Why not open your garden? This tradition dates back to the very first Daffodil Weekend and is very popular with the visitors. Your garden does not need to be a “show garden” our visitors are interested in seeing how other gardens are laid out etc. If you would like to open your garden please e mail admin@PROTECTED

Calling all amateur artists!

As part of daffodil weekend this year we are planning a new arts marquee to show any art or crafts that have been produced by people in the village. The idea is to give our visitors something of local interest to look at – not to try and sell the artworks. We want you to contribute. Many village amateur painters, needleworkers, photographers have already agreed to take part!

Please do not be shy – if you have one or two items that you would like to exhibit please contact Chris Harley (caharley23@PROTECTED ) who will be able to give you further details. Remember this exhibit is about having fun – not about critiquing fine art!

Programmes for entry to the village

These will be distributed to the village approximately a week before the event. Please note these programmes are to allow residents and helpers free access to the village during the road closures. If you are a helper from outside the village then further programmes will be available in the shop and school. If you have friends or relatives visiting especially for the weekend we would be grateful if they made a contribution to the charity weekend by buying their programme as a normal visitor or by helping and thus qualifying for a free entry programme

Health and safety

The health and safety briefing for Team Leaders etc will take place on Wednesday 18th March – time and venue to be confirmed

Contacting Daffodil Weekend

We are keen to hear your views and suggestions about Daffodil Weekend. You can do this in a number of ways – you can e mail us on admin@PROTECTED , you can contact us through the website http://thriplowdaffodils.org.uk , you can leave a note for us in our Daffodil Post Box which is kept in the shop or you could speak directly to a member of the committee:

Attractions                                          Mary Lindgren
Catering                                               Gill McDonnell
Chairman                                             Paul Earnshaw
Finance                                                Alison Starr
Health and Safety                            Brian Roberts
Infrastructure                                    Greg Hilton
Infrastructure                                    Clare Ansell
Publicity and Coaches                    Dan Murton
Publicity and Coaches                    Anna Jermain
Signs                                                      Jonny Griffin
Stalls                                                      Alastair Gray
Stalls                                                      Florence Walston
Transport                                            Melissa Tayabali
Transport                                            Imran Tayabali
Village Image                                     Neil Rowland Hall
Admin (coaches)                              Angela Mulholland
Admin (Stalls)                                    Lisa Maltpress

Best wishes

Daffodil Committee