BRAZILYMM  66 - A HUGE SUCCESS TO LAUNCH HERITAGE CENTRE 

 

When we came up with the idea for this event we could never imagined quite what a success it would be. It fired the imagination of the media; BBC Homepage, Granada Reports , local radio interviews  in Manchester and Merseyside plus the local press  to name  but a few.  The coverage meant that we drew in an audience from far and wide and welcomed around 600 visitors over 3.5 days including the gala opening.  This also included two school classes, a group from a local autism centre and the local youth club.  Our visitor book provides a great record  of people's responses. 

It was a great team effort from design to set-up and then manning the event. In all the Heritage Centre had around 30 volunteers involved. We had  huge support from the Lymm Hotel, both practical and financial,  especially manager Jamie Mcdonald.

The event would not have been possible without our exhibit donors of course.  Neil Perkins and Paul Timperley deserve special mention, Neil for access to his huge collection and Paul for the generous loan of the Pele kit. 

The #WHERESPELE  campaign where we moved a life-size cut-out of Pele round the village was another hit and was used to launch our twitter site. Thanks to the eight local businesses who gave Pele a home in the lead up to the event. 

Brazilymm  has also helped us forge stronger relationships with other Heritage organisations, notably the National Football Museum and Warrington Museum.

 

They think it's all over .. It's not yet ..

 

We used the event to run a flash fiction writing competition for year 5 and year 6 school groups.  This was done in conjunction with another local group.  We plan to use the display boards to mount  short temporary events for elderly groups such as the Community Centre Senior Social. We have collected a “post-cards from 1966” people’s memories of the visit which will become part of our archive.  We may even re-use part of the exhibition  in the new centre when it first opens later in the Summer.

 

We also used the event to launch our 100 Friends in 100 Days campaign to help secure a viable future for the centre. That got off to a great start but we won’t announce a number on that until we start to see the standing orders appearing in our account.

 

A Financial Boost for Heritage Centre

 

What we do know is that even having spent nearly £1,000 on exhibition material in order to provide the best possible presentation the whole event has still made a profit of between £1,500 and £2,000- a valuable supplement for Heritage Centre funds.  ( This does not include new Friends memberships) This is thanks largely again to the input of the Lymm Hotel whose generous donation of food, drink accommodation and football tickets enabled us to make the gala opening a ticketing event. Further revenue arose from a prize draw, merchandise sales and donations at the door.

 

All in all a great learning experience but great fun too..and a great advert for Lymm..