The KCACR is hosting a Ringing Discovery Day on Saturday 2 August, at St Margaret’s Church, Rochester.
The event will run from 10am to 4pm, and will be open to the public so that we can engage with them and raise the profile of bell ringing in Kent.
We need as many experienced ringers as possible, to be available for some or all of these hours, to make sure we have enough knowledge in the room to offer the first introduction to bellringing to potential recruits.
This Ringing Discovery Day is the first of its kind in Kent and is being run, with the support of the Central Council, as a pilot recruitment event as part of the Ringing 2030 campaign. Medway was chosen due to its proximity and transport links in to London, and because Medway’s ratio of ringers to non-ringers is estimated to be lower than the national average.
We hope this will be the first of many such outreach events in Kent, and any learnings we can glean from running this Discovery Day will no doubt assist us in running similar events in other Districts.
We need help from ringers from our Districts to help with:
- stewarding the event,
- talking to members of the public about ringing,
- assisting with supervising a mini-ring,
- assisting with supervising 1:1 ringing on the bells of St Margaret’s,
- assisting with refreshments
- handing out and collecting in contact detail forms for potential ringers.
Additionally, if you have, or know of somebody who may have some interesting ringing related artefacts and ephemera that can be lent to us for the day, that would also be appreciated.
Please get in touch if you are able to support on the day – whether it be for an hour or for the whole day – via your District Secretary, or drop an email to our Chairman, Neil Jones or General Secretary, Joanne Pohl, by no later than Friday, 27 June.
If any ringers want to assist but would like to avail themselves of the support available to cover reasonable expenses, please could they get in touch with Joanne Pohl.
In the meantime, why not share details of our Ringing Discovery Day with friends, family or contacts who may be interested in having a go at bellringing: https://kcacr.org.uk/discoverringing/
