Well it’s been a LOT of hard work and caused quite a few sleepless nights but we managed to plan, arrange and pull off our Fun Day Sunday in a matter of weeks! The weather tried its best to ruin it for us but the people of Treharris and the local area still came to support the event in their hundreds (339 to be precise 🤓)!
We have been working hard getting the ground ready for it’s first visitors in years for weeks now, but there was still plenty to sort in the few days leading to Sunday. Friday involved collecting 4 generators off Randalls Groundworks in Ebbw Vale, driving to Abergavenny to collect our new sign (which we’re really chuffed with-photo below) and then heading to The Athletic. There we put it all in the lockup and headed up to Rhyd y Grug school to collect the ‘stocks’ and we had to go to the Boys club to collect a load of tables. We also took delivery of a portaloo at the ground. Finally we had to collect our own inflatable which was in storage and blow it up to see if it still worked (thankfully it did)! Friday was basically a lot of running around and putting it all in our lockup ready.
Our inflatable, our new sign and the stocks which Scooby couldn’t wait to try out the kinky bugger!
The big news in the week leading up to the event was that our sit on mower finally arrived after months of waiting!! This was very fortunate as we discovered on Friday evening that the council hadn’t cut the pitch. To be fair we hadn’t requested it but they have been cutting it for us on a regular basis until our mower turned up so we were hoping it would have been done. Never mind, this gave us the chance to take our new machine for a spin! So back to the ground on Saturday for a full day of mowing the pitch, strimming around the sides (which was hip height), cutting back a load of bushes and tidying up the access ramp ready for people to walk down it (it was covered in weeds which was like trip wire!🙈).
The photos dont really show how long the grass was, took 3 hours to mow the pitch!
I mowed the pitch, Ev made a Tik Tok video 🙄Andrew strimmed the longer grass and then him and Ev put up the fencing ready for the next day. The under 6 army turned up in force and blasted the bushes and banking and some of the kids helped pick up the rubbish (bless them!). Rhys was in his element cutting bushes and branches, Andrew helped clear the bushes while Aaron took our inflatable offsite in order to clean it. The kids ignored their footballs and games and insisted on helping and collecting rubbish, amazing fair play!👏🏼
The under 6 players having a clear up and the fencing going up ready for the day.
The final things to do at the ground were to put up bunting and signs and then there was some last minute planning at home for the big day. Others were cutting onions, making last minute posters and collecting essentials from the shops. The amount of donations we received for the raffle and tuck shop etc was unbelievable from local businesses and the parents of our players! We put out a thank you on our social media and will get back to them all individually as soon as we get the chance, we’re so grateful for all help received!
The plan was to meet with a load of the coaches and volunteers at 7am the next morning to get everything ready for a 10am start!
The planned layout, posters, trophy, prizes and bunting at the ground entrance
The day arrived, and what was meant to be a cloudy dry day was a bit of a washout from the get go! We turned up in numbers at The Athletic and started lugging generators around and putting all the tables out and everything in its place. Mini Mayhem turned up at half 7 and started putting all the inflatables out ready for us. We had an issue with the generators which we then resolved thankfully and were ready to welcome people through the gates for 10am. At this point the rain was coming down a bit heavier, our raffle prizes were getting wet and I was genuinely concerned we wouldn’t even make back the money we had already spent out!
Thankfully people still turned up and supported the event. The mayor turned up and spent hours there and even went in the stocks fully suited and got soaked! The police came and were great with the kids along with our local councillors. The rain even stopped for some parts of the day and from 12-2 the place was swarming with people! We ran out of food and had to rush to the shops for more and there was a constant flow of people on our stalls winning prizes and enjoying the day. It was great to see the local community doing normal things and having fun and enjoying themselves. We saw plenty of familiar faces and so many of our players (young and old) were there.
Our balloon arch welcoming people onto the pitch, the mayor in the stocks and few pics of the event
The day ended at 4pm and it took us another couple hours after that to pack up and put everything away. We ended the day by towing the inflatables lorry back up the access as it was so muddy by that point, then it was time to head home after a 12 hour shift!
The day had been a washout but it really didn’t matter. There were kids and families walking around with smiles on their faces and there were Treharris medals around the necks of most which seemed to be well received, I bet some kids had a bad neck the following day from the weight of them! The takings were counted and we had taken £2900 on the day which was an unbelievable amount and more than covered our costs and got us a decent profit! Every penny raised will be going towards further work to be carried out at the ground.
We had a lot of people ask if we will be doing it again next year, and we really feel this is the start of a new tradition for us as a club. We learned a lot from the day and next years event will be bigger and better (and hopefully sunnier!). We can now proceed with getting some treatment done to the pitch and hopefully repair the wall at the entrance. The remainder of the fence upgrade is already booked in for the next couple weeks from money raised previously, onwards and upwards!
Thanks for reading, KJ.
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