An Image of Community

Posted on July 10, 2012

So there I was, peacably walking along Eaton Bray High Street collecting from the watching crowds. It happened that I was just behind the Revelation Majorettes when the heavens opened. Now the majorettes comprised mums, teenage girls, youngsters, right down to girls as young, possibly, as 5 years old.

Within moments we were all soaked and, for a few moments in the torrential rain, panic set in. There was no obvious shelter but bystanders rushed in from the sides with umbrellas for the littlest girls or tried to hurry them under trees. It only took a short time for a commanding adult voice to say 'Get them in the car' and soon a dozen or so dripping little girls were in shelter.

The downpour poured down - some collecting buckets appeared to have over ½ inch of water in them so I guess we had about ½ inch of rain in about 20 minutes. But instead of feeling sorry for themselves the remaining troupe of majorettes set to with renewed vigour and carried on as if nothing was happening.

And when I got to Edlesborough Green it was just the same. the downpour was over everyone was out enjoying themselves carrying on as normal.

I thought to myself 'What an excellent image of what Community should be all about'. There are times when adversity comes upon us and for a while we really don't know what we should do or how we are going to cope. Our natural reaction is to care for the weakest, rather like a mother hen and just as the majorettes had done. And then we press on through the adversity and carry on, sometimes as normal, sometimes with renewed strength, just like the majorettes had done.

St Mary's Village Carnival exemplified that image of Community on Saturday. For a while it was really grim but a magnificent team pulled through, took sensible decisions and ensured that our Community had a wonderful afternoon and, once again raised lots of money for the organisations in and around our villages.

-- Gordon Gray, Chairman of the Carnival Committee