Exmouth Kite Festival 2017 has secured over £1,700 in donations for the Jurassic Coast Trust, courtesy of Exmouth & District Rotary Club.
Ambassadors from the Western end of the Jurassic Coast have been busy this year, communicating the story of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site to a wider audience with appearances at a wide variety of events.
Of note was our invitation to create an imaginative stand for Exmouth Kite Festival, organised by Exmouth & District Rotary Club. Three charities were invited to participate and compete for funds from the proceeds of the festival. In addition to the Jurassic Coast Trust were Exmouth Gig Club and Exmouth Boxing Club. The winner would be the organisation which gained the majority of the public vote. Votes were cast by email, Facebook and tokens on the gate. The association with dinosaurs did us no harm, and the active work in Exmouth by the Town Team to produce a Dinosaur Trail, together with our Jurassic Coast Mural, clearly resonated with local children and their families.
Exmouth Kite Festival took place in early August, and the lucky winner of the charity pot was…. the Jurassic Coast Trust! It was the tokens on the gate that swung it for us, as we received outstanding feedback and response to our stall from the public on the day.
Frank Hart Venn and Linda Wilson from Exmouth & District Rotary Club with Jurassic Coast Ambassadors John Wokersien and Chris Woodward.
Consequently a cheque for £1,700 was presented to us on earlier this month by members of Exmouth & District Rotary Club. Our success is testament to the hard work put in by our local Ambassadors, Chris Woodward, John Ayres, Anthony Cline, and Sheena Paterson (and yours truly of course!).
It also demonstrated how the Jurassic Coast captures the imagination of the public, and the strong connection and pride people have in what we have here in and around Exmouth, on the oldest Triassic section of the World Heritage Site. The funds from Exmouth Kite Festival will greatly support the Trust in its work to protect and sustain this globally significant coast.
John Wokersien, Jurassic Coast Trustee and Ambassador
