Summer has come and gone for another year and now we make our way in the Autumnal season of ghouls and ghosts as Halloween approaches, but what a wonderful summer it was. We had showers of sun and the relaxed rules and guidelines meant we were able to spend some face to face time with those we cherish; and I’m sure some of you spent that time walking the wonderful Rotherwick Summer Trail.
The Rotherwick Summer Trail was created by Monika Loud, 37, who lives locally with her husband and two children, and we were lucky enough to catch up with her to find out about the trail’s success and what inspired them to create the adventurous summer trail.
Monika spoke to us about how she first got involved with the trail explaining: “I’ve been a part of the [Whitewater C of E Primary School] community for about 3 years now and have been helping, whenever I could, but last year I took on a PTA treasurer role.
“We were inspired to create the trail after a local family created a Christmas trail for local residents to enjoy which was a huge success. We thought it could be a brilliant way to create something fun for the local community as well as helping to raise awareness of and funds for our school.
“To create the trail, we had to come up with a series of fun nature themed quiz questions that children of all ages could enjoy. Then we identified the route and walked it to test it out. We used Google maps to plot the route and then created posters that we put at strategic points along the way, each with a different question and with links to the map, further information and a fundraising site for donations.”
Over 150 people took part in the trail which is an incredible turnout, all helping to support Whitewater C of E Primary School whilst enjoying the local habitat.
Monika also explained that being a smaller school they have suffered from government cuts, and in 2020 alone this created a shortfall of nearly £38,000 for the school, encountering only additional shortfalls and costs due to COVID.
The school are hoping to do a scarecrow trail in the autumn, Christmas Fair in December and Summer Fair in early summer 2022 which will hopefully attract the local community too.
If you are able to support the school, they always welcome an extra hand, whether it be volunteering small amounts of time when they hold events, offering your own skills to help maintain site, to monetary donations.