THE HUMBERSTON HAPPENING COMMITTEE

LAST NIGHT OF THE PROMS

The Humberston Happening Committee are organising a

LAST NIGHT OF THE PROMS concert on

SATURDAY 11^TH. OCTOBER 2008.

The Concert is to be held at

 LUCARLYS CONCERT ROOM, WILTON ROAD, HUMBERSTON and will be performed by the excellent  

LINCOLNSHIRE HOSPITALS BAND

Please join us for a wonderful evening’s entertainment. Tickets are on sale now at £ 5. Please phone Trevor or Marian on Grimsby 812543 or Enid on Grimsby 814147 and book yours now. Everyone will be very welcome and please feel free to join in the true “Proms” spirit.

Demand for tickets is expected to be high so early booking is advised. Tickets are fully refundable up to 30^th. August 2008.

THE COMMITTEE THAT MAKES THINGS HAPPEN 

The Humberston Happening Committee (HHC) was formed almost ten years ago with the express purpose of promoting events and activities to foster unity and community spirit within the village. The ‘Summer Happenings’ alone went a long way to achieving this aspiration. Held at the Wendover Hall and Paddock, and later at the Humberston C of E School, they brought  together the schools, churches, voluntary organisations and businesses in a way never seen before or since. The vast numbers who embraced the event as participant or visitor were evidence of it’s undoubted success.

Even though fund-raising was never the primary aim, registered charities benefited significantly by operating stalls at the Summer Happenings for their own funds. Also the HHC was able to make small, but regular, donations to a variety of local groups and organisations.

Unfortunately, and for reasons best known to themselves, the Humberston Parish Council effectively ended the Summer Happenings by imposing unrealistic and prohibitive restrictinons on the use of Wendover Hall and Paddock

Whilst this was a major blow to the HHC and a serious loss to the village, the Committee remained united, undaunted and moved on. Innovation has always been a feature of the group, and so it was with the introduction of the Humberston Christmas Happening in 2002. The HHC now organises a very successful annual Santa Sleigh ride through the village; made possible by the kind co-operation of the Caistor Lions Organisation.

For four consecutive years, Santa has found space in his tight schedule to fit in a special visit to the fortunate children of Humberston. On a Friday evening in early December, from six o’clock until nine-thirty, he travels on his illuminated, musical sleigh through the streets of the village. Starting at The Trawlerman in North Sea Lane, he wends his way along a circular seven mile tour which takes in almost every road within the old parochial boundary.

Every house in Humberston receives a hand-delivered leaflet giving details of the actual times of the route which takes in the Whitehall Estate, the Country Park, Primrose Way, Greenfinch Drive, Rosemary Way and the Lakes Estate, the Saints estate, Glebe Road, Lime Grove, Tetney Road and Church Avenue, and the Midfield Road, Fieldhouse Road, Lidgard Road, Sinderson Road and Carrington Drive areas.

Special visits are made to The Pear Tree, Lucarlys, The Grosvenor, The Countryman, The Coach House, The Humberston Country Club and The Trawlerman.

Santa is accompanied by his many festively-dressed helpers, who walk along with the sleigh handing out seasonal “goodies””. The helpers happily accept letters on behalf of Santa. These are handed to him at the end of the journey and Santa always promises to reply to them all. For the very first time in 2006, Santa also agreed to answer e-mail letters and many children have now been pleased to embrace this new, modern method of communicating with him.

The residents of Humberston always reward Santa by their enthusiastic support  for this very lively and colourful function; coming out and giving him a wave as he passes by.

A street collection is made, the proceeds of which are shared between the Humberston Park Special School Hydrotherapy Pool Appeal and the Caistor Lions Organisation.  Every penny donated goes to the nominated charities; no deduction of any kind is made for expenses.

The Humberston Park Special School realised their dream by raising sufficient money to build their superb Hydrotherapy Pool. It was completed in the summer of 2006, was officially opened by the Countess of Wessex, and has been in use by the students since the school term beginning in September 2006. They now require on-going funds to maintain and run this fantastic facility. The school does a wonderful job caring for these special children aged between two and a half years and nineteen with problems ranging from moderate to profound disabilities. Some are confined to bed or wheelchair for almost twenty-four hours a day and all desperately need the kind of help and relief the Hydrotherapy Pool gives them. The HHC is pleased to support such a deserving cause.

The HHC also organises a series of small events, such as coach trips and theatre outings, to finance the cost of each year’s Christmas occasion. More, and different, events are planned in the future. Humberston Happenings may vary and change, but ideals which prompted the group’s formation, still drive it onwards today.

Who could have guessed way back in 1995 how it would grow and evolve. There has been lots of hard work along the way, but there has also been tremendous  pleasure and plenty of laughs. Who can forget the costumed character at one Summer Happening who, just like Hi-De-Hi’s Partridge, really didn’t like children much at all ? Or the ungainly efforts of Thorpe Park’s brilliant Bradley Bear trying to pick out single raffle tickets with his big furry paws

The HHC has derived great satisfaction from seeing goals achieved, and also endured so much frustration about what might have been possible if unnecessary obstacles had not been placed in the path of progress. However, through the good times and the bad, the HHC has at all times remained intact, in touch and imbued with enthusiam about continuing to work for the good of the Humberston community.

Chairing the  current HHC is Enid Gray  who, along with Vice-Chairman and Acting Treasurer Trevor Grayson and Committee members Jane Gray, John and Dorothy Winn and Terry Watson  has been with the group from day one. These have since been joined by Secretary Pauline Miller MBE, Lawrence Catlyn, Margaret Peart and Sue Robinson. Others would be warmly welcomed either as Committee members of just active helpers, as an influx of new blood is absolutely essential if the ability to put on ‘big’ events such as the Summer Happenings are ever to be revived. Anyone interested should contact any member of the Committee.