The very popular Bobbit’s Stroll returned to the Harwich Society’s calendar on Sunday and the response from local residents was fantastic.
Each year the Harwich Society’s Bobbit’s Hole volunteers designate a particular Sunday when the nature reserve becomes the focus for a fund raising event for a particular charity and visitors are asked to make a donation for the privilege of strolling around the lake. This year the designated charity was Hedgehog Haven Essex and the event raised £638.20 for this very good cause with a further donation of £50 going to the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.
Refreshments including an array of homemade cakes were enjoyed as was the children’s ‘Hedgehog Trail quiz’ which had young visitors searching the nature reserve for hedgehog signs which accompanied each hedgehog related question. To add to the fun one of the resident ducks spent the morning parading her four newly hatched ducklings who became a very popular attraction.
Harwich Society chairman, Colin Farnell, says, “We had hundreds of smiling visitors and, for the most part, the weather was kind. Bobbit’s Hole is a lovely setting and it was a perfect day to see so many familiar faces along with a lot of new ones. Everyone was so generous and the volunteers ended the day very tired but very happy.”
Home-Start Harwich were on hand to offer a wide range of activities for visiting children and the BBC Essex Sunday Quest also visited the event during which its presenter, Liana Bridges, officially unveiled the Society’s Covid-19 memorial, a sundial erected in memory of all those who lost someone during the pandemic but were not able to mark their passing in the manner they would have wished.
“The memorial has received much approval throughout the local community and we felt it was a fitting time for it to be officially unveiled,” continued Colin Farnell. “The last eighteen months have been a very difficult time and the smiles on all of the faces showed how much we have missed things that we took for granted before the pandemic. I think that’s a lesson we all have to learn.”
For further information please contact
Colin Farnell, Chairman on 01255 553610
Garry Calver, Press Officer on 01255 551940
