Darlington Community Carnival
Gold members are always very keen to be involved in the Darlington Carnival and this year was no exception. Carnival was GOLD's fifth year of involvement and our members were as keen as ever to take part in the workshops, prior to the Carnival, and also in the procession through the town centre.
The workshops took place during the 6 weeks leading up to the Carnival and our members had great fun working with the two artists, Emma and Amy, and also with the members of the YMCA.
The theme for 2009 was Past, Present and Future and the procession was divided into three distinct sections with music providers in each section.
The front section was monocrome with a school group dressed as Top Hats, all in black and white, to represent the past and included a giant dinosaur and a massive gentleman on a penny farthing cycle.
GOLD was included in the middle section, which was summery colours (greens, yellows,red) along with some very energetic dancers, a bird, a ladybird and some very large hats, to represent the present. There was an enormous dragonfly and caterpillar (containing children from another school).
The future comprised of spacemen and aliens in a wide variety of metalic materials.
The Carnival was once again a resounding success with a very lively event held in Stanhope park afterwards.
One of our members was so inspired by the Carnival she has written a poem of thanks to Emma and Amy which you can find on the 'Poet's Corner' page of the 'GOLD Mine'.
With more and more workers taking advantage of early retirement, it is even more important for Gold members, their friends and family to have a say about the kind of leisure and learning opportunities that are available for people in Darlington over the age of 50. The quality and variety of activities and groups we get involved with can play a big part in how happy people are once they retire from full-time work, so it makes sense to think and plan for these things now.