Lets make our 2011 Summer Gathering magical!

This weekend the Heartbeat team have been meeting again, organising things for our next Gathering & 
this years' Gathering is going to be a really colourful, magical, fantasy inspired event. Along with all the plans already in place, one idea made by the team is to encourage everyone to participate in creating an amazing atmosphere of fun & imagination. So here is a message to everyone intending to come... Please bring your fantasy/magical/colourful/creative fancy dress costumes and wear them throughout the Gathering. We are also going to be asking all volunteers to wear fancy dress! Also please bring any instruments if you would like to join our parade. Or perhaps you would like to take part in the Open Mic on the Woodland Stage?

If you have any creative ideas for adding some fantasy & colour to the Gathering, please let us know. Do you have any inspiring ideas for our Visuals team?... a light show?, a goblin walkway? etc. Or perhaps you know someone with creative skills or a brilliant imagination who would like to volunteer to help us build, decorate, & create visual delight? Perhaps you have been to a festival where you saw an amazing artistic creation and would love to help us do something similar?
If so, please either contact us here at Gaunts House, email Stu about volunteering: summergathering@hotmail.co.uk or discuss your ideas with us on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/gauntsgathering

Also... does anyone out there happen to have an electric bubble machine that they either don't need and would like to donate, or perhaps lend us for the Gathering? Thankyou :)

A SENSE OF COMMUNITY
Another idea has been to encourage and develop the sense of Community that the Gathering creates... To encourage the wider Gaunts Community (that is everyone who comes here) to feel connected. We hope to do this in a number of ways... One way in which we hope to create a sense of community is through the Woodland Stage. Rob and Ant are hoping to attract musical people who will come together and share their talents. They are hoping the Woodland Stage will be a free and evolving space, where the musicians and the audience will feel connected and inspired.

Another idea along the community theme is to include more hands-on workshops. The raw chocolate making workshop was very popular last year and we hope to invite more workshops that give you the opportunity to get stuck in and maybe learn some new skills. One possibility is a workshop where you can make natural, aromatherapy soaps, shampoos, etc.

Another thing we would like to do is to give you more information about the Community of Profound Learning that already exists here at Gaunts House, and to give you a good idea of what we are about and why we are here. Information on the live-in Community here will be available in the information tent.

We are also going to give everyone who attends the Gathering a chance to get involved with volunteering while you are here. We will be posting information on jobs (e.g. help in the kitchen, litter picking...) on a volunteering board placed in the information tent, where you can come and see what needs doing and give us a hand. This is entirely optional and is designed to promote a Community feel, with everyone working together to make this Gathering special.