Chard Carnival raises over £5,000 for community groups and charities

Jason Baker, Chairman of Chard Carnival Committee, welcomed all those who joined the Chard Carnival’s presentation on Sunday (January 28).

Jason Baker (Image: Contributed)

The chairman went on to say last year’s carnival was a huge success, which clearly shows people enjoy Carnival and come to watch Chard Carnival as it is the biggest in South Somerset and includes entries from both South Somerset, Devon, and the County Circuit.

A message from Chard Carnival read: “We once again ran Street Fayre in September which proved to be a huge success with stalls stretching from one end of Holyrood Street to the other and included lots of live music and entertainment, this event is going from strength to strength.

“We had lots of events last year during Carnival week which included the lighting of the beacon, bingo, Carnival Quiz, Craft Fayre and we also held our usual popular events which included our spot the wrong un competition, best-dressed shop windows and of course worked with the fun fair.

The carnival raised a total of £5513,83 (Image: Contributed)

“I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you and well done to all the committee who have worked tirelessly throughout the year to put on the Carnival, Children’s Carnival & Street Fayre as well as all of the fundraising events, marshalling and meetings that took place.

“There is much that goes on behind the scenes that no one sees, and I thank them for all of their time and dedication.

Jason reminded people that we are holding our AGM on Sunday, February 11 at 7pm here at the Lordleaze Hotel and would welcome new members to join our committee he said we struggle to cover all of the jobs that need doing especially on Carnival Day, if anyone would like more details on what is involved, please do not hesitate to get in contact.

“The Carnival committee decided to continue paying appearance money rather than prize money at our carnival last year.

“In this way, everyone received funds to help towards the costs of their entries and attending our carnival rather than just those who won their class, we have already given £2380.00 in appearance money to clubs that entered Chard Carnival.

“We also gave a further £3133.83 away making a total of £5513.83 going to local groups, carnival clubs, and charitable organisations.

“We have again decided to split all the money we give away into sections, which represent how the money was collected by the committee.

“The groups that we have decided on are

• Schools and groups that sold Carnival Toys
• Groups or individuals who collected at the carnival
• Groups that applied for grants
• Groups that collected with Christmas Float

“We stopped selling light-up toys as a South Somerset Federation group of Carnivals a couple of years ago but Chard decided to continue doing this last year as a way of helping to raise funds for both schools and groups that sell them and the carnival committee.

“We purchased the toys and then give 50 per cent of the profit to the groups that sell them, this has proved to be a huge success and we will continue to work with groups in the future on this as well as looking for new groups and schools to work with this year.

“Here is a list of the groups that sold the Carnival Light Up Toys and received a donation from us.

• Redstart School
• Avishayes School
• Tatworth School
• Manor Court School
• Chard Youth Club

 Jason Baker, chairman said there are lots of people that help us behind the scenes, but we would like to give a special thank you to Tesco for all the support they give throughout the year especially Nicky as well as Numatics for allowing us to use their premises and C & D Transport amongst others for suppling collecting vehicles.

The following groups have been awarded funds for collecting at either the Children’s Carnival or the main Carnival.

• Avishayes School
• Chard Youth Club
• Fearne Animal Sanctuary
• Tatworth Amateur Pantomime Society
• Bubbles Carnival Club
• Chard United Football Club

“We invite local groups each year to apply for grants from the carnival committee to help support or purchase something for their group or club, this is only possible if we can ensure a good collection on Carnival days, and we were lucky to collect £3708.56

“This year we were overwhelmed with applications, all are looked at by the whole carnival committee and the committee then decides who we can help which is always a very difficult decision as we want to help everyone we can, we tend to try and prioritise those groups that have helped or taken part in the carnival.

“Having so many worthy causes apply led to a very long meeting where were we decided to try and help as many groups as we could.

“Here is a list of groups that were awarded grants this year

• Avishayes School
• Mifits Carnival Club
• Tatworth Amateur Pantomime Society
• Bubbles Carnival Club
• Chard Youth Club
• One + One Carnival Club
• Chard Rugby Mini & Juniors
• ZEM cc
• Merriott Majorettes
• Otters Carnival Club
• Crewkerne Rainbow Scouts
• Gemini Carnival Club
• CLOKS
• Chard Scouts
• Chard Majorettes
• Harlequins Carnival Club

“We would like to thank Both Mike Quarterly (Festival on the Hills) and Ian from the Phoenix Hotel for sponsoring the Santa float and supplying a vehicle to tow it, without their help, this would not be possible.

“We donated to all of the groups that helped and collected with the Santa float.

“Here is a list of groups that helped with the Christmas float and were given funds by the committee

• Emma Woodfield
• Andy Teague for Awesome Chard
• One Plus One Carnival Club
• Zem Carnival Club
• Crewkerne scouts
• Misfits carnival Club
• Chard scouts
• Rubaloo Carnival Club

“That concludes the evening and Our Chairman Jason Baker thanked all for attending this evening and thanked our Carnival royalty for handing out the awards."

Mr Baker would also like to remind the public that the next annual general meeting will be on Sunday 13 at 7pm at the Lordleaze Hotel.