Parachuting Teddy Bears – You think I’m joking, Huh ??

Saturday 1403  – 07.09.2013.

If you are new to my blog take a look at my About page here

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If you follow my blog regularly you’ll know that I am mostly quite a serious person who carries the weight of the world on my shoulders but sometimes I need to take a break from my activist ways in order to protect my sanity and today was just such a day.

When I first moved to Cambridgeshire I saw this sign (left) for The Pidley Mountain Rescue team in the next village to where I live. Now if you don’t know Cambridgeshire you won’t know that it is as flat as a pancake so I was completely miffed!

It didn’t have the web address on it then so I had to google it to find out what on earth it was all about and this is what it says about why it has such a name –

“The charity is based in the village of Pidley and was originally founded over 30 years ago.  The village of Pidley is on the edge of the Fens in Huntingdonshire, and is at its highest only 88 ft above sea level.  The charity’s name was created when a local villager’s car broke down on the slope leading to the village.  His charitable rescuers pushed the car up the ‘mountain’ home.“

This is what it does now –

“Our charity provides specialised equipment for disabled children and adults to develop and progress their personal mobility, and improve their homelife, while raising awareness of the needs of disabled people in our community.  Examples of equipment supplied include: wheelchairs; electric scooters; specialised trikes; paediatric buggies, adaptive computer software and hardware; and sensory equipment.”

Here’s a link for you to find out more about it.  

http://www.pidleymountainrescue.org.uk/

So what’s all this about Parachuting Teddies then?  Their latest fundraising event that’s what – the annual Pidley International Teddy-Bear Freefall Competition.

10 teddy bears parachuting out of an aeroplane 1 at a time and sponsored by local companies. The one that landed closest to the “honey pot” in the middle of the field was declared the winner. Everyone attending was encouraged to buy raffle tickets, there were 10 pots each with a sponsor’s name and you could put your ticket or tickets into whichever pot you wanted. The pot which corresponded to the winning teddy bear then had a winning ticket drawn from it.

Ok that’s enough talking let’s show you some photos from the day which was a really happy sunny one with lots of happy children all clutching teddy bears ( and a few adults too !) with a prize for the best dressed one and having fun doing things like decorating gingerbread men before eating them!

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It was lovely to see so many families out enjoying a bit of harmless fun and raising money into the bargain. It really did my heart good. 

So here’s how the jump happened –

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Here’s one about to jump out of the plane !

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Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee here he goes..!

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Phew the parachute opened!

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Nearly down!

Back on land

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The recovery team

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It was a wonderfully happy morning and I took a lot of other photos of some of the children and teddies as well as of the wonderful aerobatic flying, so I am going to feature them on Photomania over the next few days , look out for them.

Here’s the first – Just One Big Cuddly Teddy Bear – click here

Saturday girl signing off, have a good week.

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