Our Open Day

Our Open Day went very well indeed. We had a good number who came to share in our day and some to see the Centre for the first time which is excellent. At least four people had come as a direct result of reading the blog…so good to meet new faces and identify some of our readers out there! Our aim was to allow people to come into the Centre, when we were not officially open to clients. It is always a fine balance when people show an interest in the Centre and want to come and look round when Ben’s is also open in the week. We do not want clients to feel that they are on show and Ben’s is a safe place for them to be, and so Saturday was an excellent day for that.

It was also to allow people to come and see some of the good work we manage to achieve in Bens. It is lovely to see people’s reaction when they first come into the Centre. It is not what they expect a project for street drinkers to look like!

They also are amazed at the level of art and craft work we do, and also see our photographs of our many trips and other activities; and again it tends to move people’s perceptions from what they expect we may do, to what we actually do.

It was a time too to see some very familiar faces that have supported us in so many ways. We appreciate so much all their help and encouragement and it gave us an excellent opportunity to thank them face to face and for them to be encouraged in all they give to us.

As usual the food was good. Wendy has tirelessly been in the kitchen producing delicious goodies for us to eat. The comments from everyone who ate were full of praise and it helped to make some more money for the Centre. We raised about £100 after all our costs were taken out so that will be put to good use.

Thank you to everyone who took time out on a very dismal day to visit us and encourage us. It was so good to meet you and no doubt we will meet again at our next ‘event’.