Organising a celebration for such a big event takes time, the date was sorted and a room was needed - of the 3 properties we contacted(in 2024!), Lyme Park came up trumps and the room was booked.
‘Suddenly’ it was 2026 and next to sort were the speakers, Tim Jarvis (ex-Chairperson for MNTV, currently living in Essex) said he’d be honoured, but wasn't sure he could make it in person. Hazel Pryor and Charlie Spiller (both joined MNTV in the early days) would be delighted to, so that was sorted.
Roll forwards to Thursday 11th July and, after a little persuasion, I set off driving in the pouring rain from my home in Edinburgh for Manchester with my parents with home made cakes in the boot of the car and my speech in my laptop case as that was coming too.
Friday arrived and it was raining again, I iced my cakes and practiced my speech that I had spent weeks perfecting, it still wasn’t perfect - it was still raining!
Saturday dawned and after a poor night's sleep the car was packed with cake and party paraphernalia. Jenny arrived at Lyme Park just ahead of me and my family. Party Paraphernalia and Me dropped off. It was time to start setting up - we had given ourselves 2 hours to get everything ready before our guests arrived. Bunting was put up and cakes were arranged on our wooden cake stand. It was then that someone asked where the plastic glasses for the bubbly were? After a couple of words not to be repeated, I raced across the carpark to see if our car was still there. It was, but Mum and Dad were nowhere to be seen. Managing to track them down, there were no glasses in the boot, but they’d definitely come in the car from Edinburgh! Oh why had I unpacked them when we got to our accommodation, Mum and Dad very kindly said they would return to our accommodation and locate them in the cupboard I thought they were in. Thanks Mum and Dad.
Having got that under control there was another more fun problem, Daniel had been detailed to get two helium balloons, a 4 and a 0. Neil opened the bag they were in and the 0 came out perfectly attached to its ribbons and weight. The 4 however had different ideas and wasn't attached to its ribbons and weight and went sailing up to the ceiling, thus proceeded a game of ‘how many people does it take to get a helium balloon down’, the answer is 3! After trying this pole and that rod plus some sellotape it was finally retrieved but it was a bit deflated and would no longer stand proud, never mind. Thanks to Rangers Chris and Claire plus estate worker Jason for their expertise.
With Bunting inside and outside, banners put up, care of Jenny, the tables and chairs were set up as was the laptop with pictures from the last 40 years projected onto a big screen - we were ready to go, just! By this time it was 2pm and our guests were arriving, still no glasses…they arrived at about 2.30pm (my thanks must go to my Mum and Dad for that and also for driving with me down for the event). With guests arriving it was time to start mingling…now you’ve heard about the set up I’ve asked Sue B to tell you about how the party went…..
Gosh - what can I say?! - apart from it being a lovely, happy and sociable afternoon; a gathering of current and ex-volunteers from our group, all together to celebrate an amazing achievement - 40 years of volunteering on Sundays on National Trust properties mainly in the North West, with some weekends at further afield NT properties too.
The committee, led by Ally as our most recent Chairperson, had done a fantastic job in organising today: plenty of nibbles, drinks and cake; lovely decorations and bunting; a fabulous slide show of photos from past workdays and social events as a reminder of what we’ve done over the last 40 years, and of the people we’ve done it with; as well as organising an MNTV ‘40th’ Tote bag, designed with the names of the properties we volunteer at, as a lovely memento of the occasion.
As well as past and current volunteers, and a couple of their dogs, we also had support from the Lyme Park Rangers who came along for the afternoon (some even on their days off) and formerly thanked us for all the volunteering hours we’ve put in at Lyme Park, as well as National Trust properties generally, over the past 40 years.
A National Trust photographer circulated during the afternoon taking photos while we were catching up with people we may not have seen for a while then, a little after 3pm, Ally gathered us together for the speeches.
It started with Ally’s speech, written and read with the usual flair and enthusiasm that we would expect from Ally!
As Chairperson (and also the program organiser for our workdays), Ally is immensely proud of everything that MNTV has already achieved, and is continuing to achieve, and this was reflected in her speech - it was not only informative but funny and uplifting, a speech with a sparkle, just like Ally:-)
We then heard from our 3 guest speakers, Hazels in person was witty and full of stories, Tim and Charlie hadn’t actually been able to join us themselves, both had sent their thoughts to Ally and these were read out by Daniel and Denise, two of our committee members.
In particular Charlie, who lives in the Lakes and was so looking forward to being with us, but due to a last minute staffing issue at work couldn’t be here, was particularly upset at missing our 40th party.
Afterwards five long-service awards were presented by Chris, Lyme Park, Lead Ranger, these were David and Jenny who both received 10 years, Neil who received 15 years, Denise achieved 20 years and Adrian who has done a whopping 35 years. Also receiving long service awards but unable to be at the party were Martin with 10 years and Sue D with 15 years.
After the cakes had been eaten, or boxed up for tomorrow's workday at Lyme which I was leading, we took down the bunting and the fairy lights, the projector was turned off, and everyone made their way home.
Neil gave Ally a lift to her accommodation, as the cottage where she was staying with her family was a few mins walk away from Boarfold Scout Camp where Neil is a Warden and where he was staying the night. We squeezed the balloons in the car for Ally’s 3 year old Niece, apparently she loved them!
It was a wonderful afternoon - a joyous celebration as well as a time of reflection for what we’ve already achieved - we’re certainly looking forward to getting back out there and doing much more volunteering.
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