Trafalgar School students volunteer their time to entertain at Stamshaw Schools summer fete. Photos by Paul Smith OBE
Community spirit was out in full force at the Stamshaw Schools PATCH annual summer fete on Saturday 29th June.
Witnessing the vibrant community spirit at Stamshaw Schools PATCH annual summer fete on Saturday 29th June was truly inspiring. It's a beautiful reminder of the power of a community coming together and supporting one another.
The PATCH Summer Fete held on the grounds of Stamshaw Junior school is fast becoming one of the go to summer fixtures with people attending from all over Portsmouth and the surrounding areas. The event, which is in its 3rd year, is run and organised by volunteers from the charity Stamshaw Schools PATCH (1201614). This year the event raised an astounding £5232.91 which will be used to help support Stamshaw Infant and Stamshaw Junior schools. It is estimated to have been attened by over 2,000 people which just goes to show that community spirt is alive and kicking in Stamshaw. Huge thanks goes to TracoUK who generously sponsored the event.
The fete featured entertainment in the show arena with a fantastic performance from students of local dance school Danielle Mason School for Dance and an extrodianry batton twirling display by Saltire Twirlers, many of whom were out for their first ever performance. There were two wonderful displays of martial arts with Bravo Karate and TKD Taekwondo showing off their skills, and cheer squad Portsmouth Warriors provided an energetic ending to the day.
Local entertianer Wes Skelley from Bart's Disco was also on hand to provide two mini discos and all the music for the performers.
Free entertainment was on offer from City of Portsmouth Athletic Club, BH Live -Mountbatten Centre, and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance. The fantastic crew from Red Watch were also on hand to show families around a working fire engine.
Red Watch Fire Crew
As awlays, the amzing team of volunteers from the 23rd Portsmouth Scouts were on hand to man the BBQ. A huge thank you goes out to Sarah and her team who are always such fantastic supporters of PATCH events. This is the 3rd year they have provided the BBQ and all profit made from this is split between PATCH and the scout group.
We were incredibly thankful to Caterlink who kindly donated some sausages, burgers and buns, and for sponsorship from TracoUK which meant that almost all money taken on the BBQ was profit, leaving both the scouts and PATCH with £300 each.
Volunteers Linda Fisher and Liz Phelan were kept busy all day with raffle ticket sales soaring.
With some absoluletly astounding prizes up for grabs, it is no surpirse that the 'Big Summer Raffle' was arguably the biggest fundraising success. With support from huge companies such as Eurocamp who donated a star prize 7 night holiday, Victorious Festival and Popmey football club, and local businesses such as Andrew and Andrew solicitors, WDC Fitness, Atlanta Garage, Bravo Karate, Pook Lane Riding School and many more it is clear to see this wonderful little charity is well supported by its community. The raffle alone raised over £2,300 of the total for the event.
It's not every day a real life unicorn visits your school.
Adding a bit of magic to the occasion was Princess the unicorn, a regular visitor at PATCH events. Princess never fails to add a little sparkle to the day and the children love getting the opportunity to meet a real life unicorn.
The fete featured a lovely little craft market with a wonderful variety of stalls from dog treats, to jewellery. Take a look at some of the pitches in our stall holder gallery.
It doesn't happen without volunteers
A year in the making, planning for the summer fete beings almost immediatly after the previous year's event. Our incredible team of volunteers give up a monuntenal amount of time to plan the event, making it bigger and better every year. The core team worked an astounding 33 hours each over the Friday and Saturday completely free to bring this wonderful event to life, but none of it would be possible without the support of the staff, families, and the community who all give up their time to help with setting up, running the day and perhaps the most thankless task, packing away at the end. And let's not forget the 'PATCH kids', also known as our VIPs, who are the real troopers. They loose their parents for long hours and rarely complain. They are there from 6am until long after the crowds have left and if they're really lucky they get to wear the mascot costumes in the boiling heat. They are often the ones forgotten in the excitement of the day, but they are real superheroes.
And with that said, planning has already begun for next year's event which will be going through a bit of a rebrand. So we hope to see you all back for another fun filled day on June 28th 2025 for STAMFEST. Save the date!!
One thing you can guarentee we forget is to take photos. A huge thank you goes out to the wonderful Paul Smith OBE who came along to snap some shots of the fun.
Can you spot yourself in the gallery of photos from the day?
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