Trip to No.10 Downing Street
Two members of the Swaledale Festival were invited to a reception in No.10 Downing Street on Wednesday, 28 January. Artistic Director Malcolm Creese and Board Member Janet Hall were sent the personal invitations to celebrate the Festival’s earning the Prime Minister’s Big Society Award in June last year.
The award was granted in recognition of the Festival’s education and community work but particularly for its percussion project run over the autumn and winter of 2013/14. During the reception Janet had the opportunity explain to Prime Minister David Cameron about the Festival’s work and give him brief details of the percussion project and its valuable work in Dales and Garrison schools.
In a short address to all the award holders David Cameron, who had almost lost his voice due to a combination of a bad cold and having previously been at Prime Minister’s Question Time, told everyone how much he valued what they were doing for society.
These receptions are an opportunity for award winners to meet the staff who administer the awards scheme, and representatives from other organisations and projects that have received a Big Society Award. Amongst those who were there were people who had run youth football projects, organised a befriending service to the elderly housebound, supplied swimming pools to schools and run a village shop on a community basis.
Janet and Malcolm were also delighted to learn that the photograph taken to celebrate the arrival of the award on 6 June 2014, was displayed on the office wall of the staff at the Cabinet Office. Children at the schools who participated in the percussion project were delighted to learn about the award and several of them were able to get to the Hut People’s concert and join Sam and Gary and other adults who were involved in it in this photograph.