Some Disasters and Disappointments

Some Disasters and Disappointments: 

We have been facing obstacles: At the beginning of June on a quiet Saturday evening, a huge tree, infected with Honey Fungus, fell on the Activity Hut and the Art Room next door causing severe damage to both buildings. 

Luckily no one was in the buildings at the time and so no one was injured. Even so it was unsettling for everyone including the Otterhayes residents.  

The Activity Room is where we do drama sessions and where the film set it built and our specially built false ceiling was completely destroyed. The Art Room was not quite so badly damaged. Its roof has been repaired and it is back in operation. However, the Activity Hut sustained far worse damage and so it will need to be replaced. This will take some time and so it will be a good few months before we are up and running again. The lesson to be learned here seems to be that we cannot impose too many time constraints on this project! It will take as long as it takes to come to fruition.  

The good news is that the Otterhayes management team got to work very quickly. Within a week they had arranged for a large marquee to be installed which is where we now continue with our dialogue rehearsals and prop and set making activities. 

Another difficulty is that we also were unsuccessful with our Lottery bid which was disappointing. I have sought out some advice from a local organisation with some expertise in the field and we will hopefully be able to re-tweak it and resubmit. Another funder also turned down our bid for renewed funding and so we are now turning our attention to Crowdfunding!