👏 Thank You Sunday

On Sunday, July 2nd, we hosted our inaugural Thank You Day celebration at Luton Millennium Green. Thank You Day provides an opportunity for individuals to express gratitude for the countless contributions that enrich our communities and foster connections among neighbours throughout the year.

 

The inspiration for our own Thank You Day originated from conversations at our Thursday Hangout and Friday’s Underneath the Arches singalong. Through these conversations, a collective vision emerged, resulting in a great afternoon that showcased an array of performing arts and music.

The afternoon commenced with an enchanting Documentary Dance Theatre performance titled "The Allotment Project" by Casson & Friends.

Following this mesmerising act, The Plonkers took centre stage, strumming their ukuleles and lending their voices to a medley of songs. The Vision Signing Choir then captivated the audience by signing popular chart-topping tracks, whilst teaching the audience British Sign Language. Finally, the celebration concluded with an improvisational acting session delivered by Medway Play Lab CIC.

Be sure to stay tuned for our plans to commemorate Thank You Day in 2024.


Medway Eyes 👀

The eyes have landed in Luton, have you seen them?

Located behind Bowen Moto and towards Short Street Garage.


Rebirth of Chatham Carnival 🎭

Saturday 9th of July saw the long-waited return of the Chatham Carnival! More than 20 years in the making, we were really proud to be involved it was great to again get to speak to lots of people living in and beyond our Big Local Area.

Every Thursday in the run up to the main event, we engaged in creating carnival-themed banners, bunting and headdresses. We even created a large tree for the carnival where we would ask people to attach leaves to this tree with a message of what they liked in the area and wish to see more of.

It was a brilliant team effort, with the whole community coming together in this way. There was lots to do at this festival of fun, live music and activities for all the family – and best of all in this current cost of living crisis it was all free!

We really look forward to being involved again in next years Carnival and for many more years to come together and celebrate.

 

 


Big Lunch at Town Hall Gardens 🥪

 

Join us on Thursday the 16th of June at Town Hall Gardens Park, ME4 4LQ from 12pm till 2pm.

Gathering at the park we will have some light refreshments, so please bring your own main lunch and picnic blankets.

Really looking forward to meeting new people, making new friends, sparking new conversations and together making giant bubbles in the park.

So join us then to whip up a big batch of bubbles to release them into the air and blow yourselves away with fun! 


Medway Eyes at Luton Primary School

In February, we were pleased to visit Luton Primary School alongside Medway Task Force to view the fantastic creations from their eye themed art week, as a part of the wider Medway Eyes project.
The bar was set high due to experiencing their Elephant Project exhibition less than a year ago, but once again, we were all blown by the sheer number and quality of art on display that spanned the entire school.
Keep your eyes peeled to see what's coming very soon to a street near you. 


Festive Fit & Fed 🎄

Thanks to our partners and Medway Go, we were able to run Fit & Fed on the run up to Christmas for the very first time at Luton Primary School. Similar to our fantastic October programme, we were able to offer more than just multisports this time around too. Nucleus Arts joined us twice a day and Creatabot popped in too, for a myriad of creative and engaging activities.

This three-day programme was made even better by a delicious hot festive lunch donated by Forks and Corks for all the young people to enjoy.
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Patchwork returns!

After months of fantastic patchwork being created and displayed via Zoom, we were delighted to welcome back our community patchwork group to the HeART space in line with government Covid-19 guidance.
It was fantastic to view some of the creations from our digital patchwork sessions in person and see how they have evolved over the lockdown period. Here's an example of a beautiful hand weaved poncho by Doreen.
The patchwork session runs every Wednesday between 12.45 pm till 2.45 pm at the HeArt space in the Pentagon Shopping Centre, but because of current Covid-19 guidelines spaces are limited so please book in advance. If you are interested in getting involved or know anyone who might be, please get in touch.

Luton’s Urban Trees Movable Forest has landed!

Medway’s first, one-of-a-kind ‘movable forest’ has landed in a Chatham primary school, thanks to resident-led organisation Arches Local.

Working together with Medway Plus, a locally-based charity, we were successful in gaining funding in November 2019 from PostCode Local Trust for £10,000.00 together with £5,000.00 Big Local Match Funding totaling £15,000.00.

Partly due to the complications around COVID-19, we were not able to fully deliver the goals of the original Luton’s Urban Trees submission. This led to us not being able to plant as many street trees as originally planned. In March 2020, Postcode Local Trust announced that the funding we had received was considered unrestricted (with certain conditions in place).

With this announcement in mind, we developed a ‘movable forest’ concept of placing large trees in large containers that could be flexibly moved around the Luton area of Chatham. These trees were planned to be initially placed at a local primary school which has no discernible tree canopy, suffering from swathes of hard standing playgrounds.

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Work finally underway to give Chatham’s historic Luton Arches railway bridge a facelift

Work has started to clean and repair a well-known railway bridge in Chatham.

The 1858-built underbridge, part of the Luton Arches, carries the London to Ramsgate main line over the steep valley leading towards the village of Luton, now part of the wider Chatham area.

The red and green cast iron arch is seen by thousands of people every day on their way in and out of the town on the A2 road.

After a long life in service, the bridge now needs refurbishment to make sure it can continue to carry trains and passengers for another 160 years, as well as maintain its place as an admired landmark in the town of Chatham.

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Wishing you a Happy Holidays 2020!

Our last official day is the 19th of December 2020 though our community space at the Pentagon is currently closed we will return there on the 4th of January 2020. We thank you all for #gettinginvolved and supporting our #BigLocal this difficult year and wish you all a Happy Holidays and New Year #Community #BetterTogether.

We will be working with partners on Festive Food related projects to help support those in need in our #BigLocal community before 4th of January and during the Festive Holidays. So please keep checking here for any updates or support that may be available during that period!