News. What's going on in Furness
There’s a new crowd in town
On Thursday 26th July a group graduates and young professionals from Furness descended upon Coniston Water, literally, for an evening of light socialising, pork and apple burgers and lots of Czech beer and Crianza.
The aim of the evening was to launch a new initiative, kindly supported in the backdrop by Furness Enterprise, to bring together members from this forgotten demographic without a structured theme that might impinge on a relaxed atmosphere within which to meet like-minded people. The intuitive idea was that an opportunity to get together would create positive results for the people involved and their community.
This is what happened:
40 people attended the oversubscribed evening without much pre-warning of what to expect. They stepped on the bus in Barrow and were whisked to the jetty at Coniston boating centre where the Captain of a beautiful wooden solar-powered boat welcomed them on board with drinks and nibbles. For 90 minutes there was nothing but lively talk and laughing with the occasional pop of a champagne cork. The sun came out just as we went about for the leg back to shore and more people headed for the deck to enjoy the blue skies.
After a quick photo call on the jetty by our resident photographer Sarah Lashmar-Bolton, food was served to the chilled tunes of Groove Armada under a white marquee canopy. Dinner was a barbecue of local burgers and sausages, an array of salads and some very tasty pasta, thanks to The Best Events based just down the road.
More chatting and mingling with odd cries of ‘ ‘I come from Leeds too!’ with an occasional ‘Oh I’d love to learn how to kite surf’ and we were off. It seemed everyone had more in common than they had expected and there was no stopping the banter that ensued.
As the sun went down and the food was devoured, fairy lights went on and tables were pulled round for a final hour of discussing what the next event should be. The most popular ideas seemed to be BBQ’s on the beach off Barrow, outdoor adventure weekends, team treasure hunts around the Lakes and a ball of magnificent proportions. There was going to be no lack of inspirational ideas to take this venture to the next stages.
‘Carriages’ arrived at 11pm and after several goodbyes and hugs with people we had only met that night but already seemed like old friends it was time to return to real life and work tomorrow. There were stories recounted later of sea shanties sung and I Spy played on the buses to ensure the fun of the evening didn’t fizzle on the journey home. It felt as though in the back of everyone’s minds was a brewing excitement that this is the beginning of a new culture in Furness, one that we knew was there all along and just needed 40 energetic people to get together and set the ball rolling…
Posted by Sally Broom on 30th July 2007
