Tag: Children

Monton locals unite to reimburse clown’s stolen Easter donations

  • Children’s entertainer Louby Lou held an Easter event for children at Monton Unitarian Church on Thursday 17 April
  • Money from the donations pot appeared to have been stolen when it was recovered at the end of the event
  • Members of the Monton Chat Facebook group sought to restore Louby Lou’s lost earnings via online donations

Monton locals have been left shocked after learning that a children’s clown and entertainer had her donations stolen during an Easter-themed event for children at Monton Unitarian Church on Thursday.

Lucy Wilkinson, 44, who performs for children as clown ‘Louby Lou’ at local events, said she was ‘blown away’ by the generosity of the Monton community after the news of the theft was posted in the Monton Chat group on Facebook.

The event invited children and parents from the local area into the church for some Easter-themed fun, and a donation pot positioned by the entrance had collected an estimated £20 in notes and coins for the performer.

However, when Church Secretary Pam Ward-Speers arrived to lock up the church at the end of the event and return the pot to Wilkinson, it was discovered that most of the donations had been stolen.

“I was quite shocked, but I was quite upset as well,” Pam said. “It’s not the sort of thing that we want to happen when they’re coming to our church.

“We want people to feel safe at church, and we don’t want to think that there are people around, especially when there are young children around, that might not be honest, so it was upsetting for us as well.”

Louby Lou also expressed her disbelief: “I love Monton, I love all the people here. I was more gobsmacked that it had happened in a church. I was just like, wow.”

In her upset, Pam took to Facebook to alert the local community of what had happened, writing: “The children had a lovely time with [Louby Lou] and the Easter Bunny – it was such a shame for it to end this way.”

Soon after posting, offers of donations started being made in the comments, and it became clear that Monton locals were keen to show their support in the wake of an upsetting situation.

One commenter wrote: “How can we help? Let us know if a fund is set up,” while several others agreed that they were ‘happy to contribute’.

Upon seeing the offers of help, Pam approached Rev. Anna Jarvis who suggested that donations could be made via the church’s website and subsequently passed on to Louby Lou.

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“I’m blown away by it. I really am,” said Louby Lou. “The comments that I saw, I was like, wow, this is just melting my heart of people who have come together and contributed. There are good people around, there really are.

“Mine and Rev. Anna’s mantra to each other is ‘love always wins’, and it does. It really, really does, and it’s proved it here. So there’s always a positive twist that comes out of everything, every day.”

Pam added: “In times of need and in times of crisis, we come together as a community, and it’s just amazing. It is just a beauty. It’s just a beautiful thing to be part of that community.

Pam has since confirmed that the online contributions have more than reimbursed Louby Lou’s lost donations, and that the ordeal has underscored the Monton community’s resilience and generosity.

She said: “Thank you to everybody who commented and donated, and just for all the encouragement and the love and support that people gave. It meant so much.”

Monton Scouts actively seeking new members

Monton’s Scout group have written articles for Monton Matters calling for new members to join them as part of their Media Relations and Marketing badge.

With only nine members, 10th Eccles Scouts, which is based at Monton Methodist Church, hope to persuade other young people in the area to join up.

Leader Joe Mickleburgh, who took over the group in September, said: “While the Beaver and Cub sections are doing well, Scouts have extremely low numbers – we have nine and are losing five at Christmas!”

Now, the Scouts hope to spread the word about how much fun Scouts can be. The following two articles were written by the Scouts in their two patrols, Stags and Lions.

Stags

SCOUTS: MORE THAN JUST CAMPING!

  • Have fun while learning important skills for life
  • Try new things you’d never otherwise get to do
  • New challenges for everyone

Scouts is a community aimed at letting young people to have fun, while teaching them skills for life, as well as doing your bit to make your country proud.

Not only in Scouts you do things such as camping and hiking, but you get the chance to meet new people and see things you haven’t seen while doing the activities of a lifetime.

Scout activities can be traditional, like pitching tents, cooking, survival skills, and shelter building, but also modern, like learning to solder electronics, engaging with the local community, and snow sports.

One of the members of the 10th Eccles Scout Troop said: “Scout camp feel like home – there’s always something to do and I’m with some of the best friends I’ve made.”

Another said: “I just joined for the camps but every Tuesday at Scouts the leaders never fail to make it fun.

He added: “I like Scouts because of life lessons I learn.”

If this seems like you, or sounds like something you would do, get in touch with your local Scout group and join the 57 million Scouts worldwide on their adventures.

Lions

10th Eccles Scouts – Exciting Adventures!

At 10th Eccles Scouts, you’re free to be you. No matter what your hobbies are, how you identify or your appearance. It’s a great way for your children to express themselves.

There’s a plethora of different and unique badges that are fun to earn and collect. You can even put them on your scout shirts sleeve. It looks very fashionable. These badges include the Chef, Dragon Boating and Master of Arms badge.

Cubs, Beavers and Scouts alike all describe scouting as fun and especially at our rural camps. We participate in several camps each, so every participant receives high quality days, experiences and nights.

In conclusion, Scouting is a fantastic way to entertain all children while giving them a strong education with exciting experiences to go along with it.

“Been fun!” said Amy, a 12-year-old (nearly 13) girl who has been in Scouting for 6 total years.

“There are fun activities, you can’t go crate-stacking everywhere.” She believes that everyone there is nice and unique in their own way. Amy thinks it is cool to go camping so regularly.

At a Scout meeting last Tuesday 10 October, the Scouts finalised their stories for publication on the Monton Matters website.

Throughout the evening, they told stories of the fun experiences they’d had at 10th Eccles, and ended on a game they’d made up themselves, which was similar to dodgeball but instead of a teams game, the Scouts took a more ‘every person for themselves’ approach.

Joe told Monton Matters: “After this badge, we’re going to start on the Local Knowledge badge with drawing maps of the local area and then looking at road atlases to get to grips on what local transport is available in Monton.”

Scouts meetings take place every Tuesday from 19:45 to 21:00 at Monton Methodist Church, Grange Drive.

For more information about 10th Eccles Scouts, including how to join, please contact Joe Mickleburgh at joe@10theccles.org.uk