The weekend was a huge success and it was lovely to see so many of you come along and support this amazing event. The team, alongside our friends at Community Spirit Newton Aycliffe, Palram DPL Limited and The Big Club, have been working tirelessly on our days off to plan this event and build this years amazing Santa’s Grotto.
Newton Aycliffe is an amazing place to live and work, and we love how the community comes together when others are struggling. This is why we wanted to give something back. It is Our way of saying Thank you.
Thank you to the following for funding this event: Persimmon Homes, Livin, County Councillors, Cornforth Partnership and Joy Allen.
Thank you to Stuart and Paul and the team at Newton Press for printing all the panelling for the grotto. A massive thank you to the team at Palram DPL Limited, who, right from the off, agreed to build this year’s Grotto. They are a fantastic bunch of people and did everything in their own time and charged us nothing. Again, it was their way of saying thank you to the community of Newton Aycliffe. You are a credit to the town, and we cannot thank you enough. The team have already agreed to sit down in the new year and discuss what other community events they can support.
Thank you to all of our volunteers who worked the event. It would have not been such a success without your commitment and dedication. Thank you to the team at The Big Club for allowing us to use your building for this event and your support throughout the last few months. We look forward to working with you all next year.
Thank you to all the companies on the Business Park who supported this year’s community raffle and donated prizes. We will be putting pictures on Facebook over this week, with individual photos from each company. They have all been so supportive and many have agreed to support other community work next year.
We understand that a few people commented saying that this should be a ticketed event. We considered this, but we felt that it wouldn’t work. Ticketing the event would lead to people booking time slots and then not attending. Meaning that those who couldn’t get a time slot would go without seeing Santa and Mrs Claus, this was something we would not let happen. Equally, we did not want to charge people for tickets, we wanted it to be free, so that everybody could attend and experience the magic of Christmas.
Finally, a million thank you’s would not be enough for these two, Nev and Jo Jones, you are a credit to this town, your passion and enthusiasm in making the magic happen for the residents of Newton Aycliffe is something we have always admired. I don’t think people realise just how amazing these two people are. They both work full time and still find the time to organise an event on this scale. You are both a credit to this town and we are so lucky to have them both, you truly are an inspiration to us all.
It’s amazing what can be achieved when we all work together for the benefit of the wonderful residents of Newton Aycliffe. We hope you enjoyed your weekend, and thank you from us all.
Happy Christmas from all the team at Newton Aycliffe Police.
