“Spoiler warning:  we are not really a committee at all.  We are a group of disparate, self-selected individuals, who have taken it upon themselves to organise social events for our parish and, as a result, often raise money for the parish and worthwhile, mainly local, charities.  We meet fairly frequently, maybe every six or seven weeks with the inevitable glass of wine to assist deliberations.  The nucleus of the group is six/seven plus the parish priest.

There are three regular parish events which occur every year: a Christmas draw, a pre-Christmas quiz (with fish and chip supper and sing-song) and the Parish barbecue in early July. Added to those over the past years, we have organised a Wild West Evening, a race night, a South American evening, a Murder Mystery play, a Wine and Cheese event and a St Patrick’s Night event,  all with their obligatory Catholic raffle!

We continued to function during Covid, organising fund raising, competitions and events on-line and since then have held a Sound of Music event and a Music Hall.  However there has been a fall in the number of people attending to such an extent that the last event, a normally very popular St Patrick’s Night, was cancelled for lack of support.  As a result over the next months, we will be trying to gauge what events, if any, might be more enticing.

We have supported various local charities apart from the Parish itself including Make A Difference Maidstone, Women’s Refuge and Slide Away (a Bearsted charity aiming to help children with life limiting illnesses).

The group is chaired (loosely!) by Bob Piggott and minutes are taken by Jenny Lovelock.  We are always looking for people to help out with events or to suggest new events, so just make yourself known to either of us.

Bob Piggott

April 2023”