The first event to mark and celebrate our 40th Anniversary Year was a Groups Showcase Event on Saturday 24 January at the Methodist Church Hall in the centre of Bicester.
The hall was packed with members and visitors. Those who attended said that everyone was really friendly and how much they’d enjoyed it. “Buzzing” was how many people described the atmosphere.
The event gave everyone a chance to find out what other groups do and to socialise with members they don’t often see.
There were games of table tennis, mah jong and rummikub, while the ukulele group performed and the badminton group played “badminton-basketball”. There were paintings, crafts, all kinds of stitchcraft, books and much more. Nearly all our activities were represented.
A number of existing members put their names on waiting lists for future groups, and these have been passed to the committee. We also had 13 visitors who signed up there and then for membership and several others who took membership forms away.
Most people present seemed to feel that the event was highly enjoyable and were glad to have something to do to brighten up a grey Saturday. Some members said we should have done this years ago, and others were calling for it to be repeated annually. What is clear is that it was very successful as a one-off event to celebrate our 40th anniversary!
