61st AGM REPORT

At our AGM last Tuesday the Carnival Chairman, Paul Townend, ran through the various Carnival events and activities that had taken place over the last year. The year started with the Selection and Crowning of the 2014 Carnival Queen, Chyanne and her Princesses Mia and Teegan and ended with the Presentation Night when we gave the monies away raised at our carnival week in August.

Paul reported “Unfortunately Carnival Week suffered on the Sunday with the tail of hurricane Bertha whipping the coast, not putting off the runners of the Fun Run - they were a credit to their sport.

Later the same day the Family Fun Day was, unfortunately, virtually washed away with rain and gales at the wrong time and throughout the day, such a shame as a great afternoon of events had been arranged.

Other events throughout the week were touch and go with the weather, culminating in the fete & fireworks, and to no fault in the weather the firework display was nothing like we wanted due to a technical glitch.

The theme of carnival was Fairy Tales, after a worry with sharing the starting area with a Circus some colourful and great floats took part in the street procession – we were lucky to have had good weather for that.”

“Financially this was not a great year to say the least, but in what we described as a ‘challenging week’ we still managed to hand out £7,432 to 39 local Charities including £2,010 to our main charity the RNLI Clacton. Even though amounts were reduced, the donations given at Presentation Evening, will be spent as wide range as ever throughout the local area, assisting hundreds of people”.

The biggest challenge for next year will be securing a new Venue for Carnival Week for our 3 major outdoor events, as the Gainsford field we have been at for the last 36 years has been pinpointed for some major development.”

Finally Paul thanked the entire Committee for their hard work throughout the whole year, “you are all a credit not just to Carnival, but to Clacton as well.” 

Officers elected to the Executive Committee were;  Chairman, Paul Townend; Vice Chairman, Peter Luckin Snr; Secretary – Pat Stannard; Treasurer – Linda Hills; Press/Publicity Officer – Nicky Freeman and ex-officio members Kerry Primmer and Alan Wiggins.