Racheal is a member of the Epsom Pantry Steering Group. In this blog she talks about how her confidence has grown through her involvement in helping to shape what we do.
Hi, my name’s Racheal. I’m a Mum to 3 children and I’ve been happily married to my husband for 14 years.
When I joined the pantry, I met the lovely Jane, who recommended the Steering Group, so I went along to see what it was about and how I could help.
We have lots of lovely people on the Steering Group that also use the pantry. It’s where we can get together, put ideas across on how we can get extra fundraising ideas, what we can do in the local community and how we can bring the pantry community together. We have done things like the Easter Egg Hunt and the Christmas party. I love organising the Christmas party with everyone because it’s where we can all come together and put great ideas across and we’ve had some amazing ideas on what we could do. So, I recommended having a sensory corner for children with special needs. Someone said that it would be a great idea to have Father Christmas, maybe give out a small gift. And lots of brilliant ideas about arts and crafts tables and what we can do.
I’ve also benefitted so much from being a part of the Steering Group being that I’m going to be opening up my own business soon. It has given me the confidence to be able to put ideas across, to know how to plan an event, how to follow the event through. So, I have gained so much experience that I could use myself. It’s just amazing!
We absolutely love attending the Christmas party. Not last year, but the year before, my husband was Father Christmas and to see the smiles on the children’s faces was just wonderful! And the things they ask for isn’t much at all. It’s something like a skipping rope, a hula hoop and to see everyone in our community come together and have a really fun day, it’s just lovely.
We also put together a tombola. We do ‘guess how many sweets are in the jar’. We do lots of arts and crafts for the children. We had the sensory corner. We also have a raffle for the adults and a separate one for the children.
And to watch everyone come together, to see the community making friends. And I think that’s what the pantry stands out for, is that it is a warm, special place where people can come together and make new friends and I really do enjoy seeing the community all having fun together.
