What an absolutely fabulous day! On Saturday 2nd August, Godstone Farm hosted a charity fun day and colour run, to raise as much money as possible for the truly incredible charity, Shooting Star Children’s Hospices. Shooting Star is a charity we hold so close to our hearts and supports families facing the unimaginable. You can read a little further on in this post about the reason we are choosing to support this charity.
A Personal Thank You from Nicola Henderson, Godstone Farm CEO
I’d like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who joined us at Godstone Farm for our charity day in support of Shooting Star Children’s Hospices. It was so heartwarming to see such generosity from our visitors, and the goodwill was above and beyond my expectations. Our team honestly poured their hearts into making every activity memorable, and we are keen to make this an annual event in our calendar.  Above all I’m delighted we could do this for Carina and Mike, honouring their dear son Harrison and supporting the hospice he was at. Together, we made a difference!
A Day to Remember at Godstone Farm
From the moment the gates opened, there was a huge sense of excitement in the air! Families arrived in their hundreds, wearing white t-shirts and big smiles, ready for a day of feeling good, being kind, and an anticipation of being soaked in powder paint and fun. The farm was buzzing with joy and genuinely happy people, it was a pleasure to be a part of it.
As well as all the Summer of Fun activities, including circus skills workshops, animal interactions, mini golf, animal talks, arts and crafts, farm trail, indoor and outdoor play and of course our daily foam parties, there were a whole load more fun activities to raise money for Shooting Star. Jam-packed tombola stalls were hugely popular with some fantastic prizes, donated kindly by businesses, individuals, staff and families. If you won one of the bigger prizes, we really hope that you have an amazing experience! Some volunteers from Shooting Star ran a stall selling some original artwork by some of our amazing animals – who knew that bearded dragons, ducks and tortoises could be so artistic.
Slime making and face painting were incredibly popular for great reason – let’s be honest – slime making and face painting are great fun anyway and even better when someone else has to clean up the mess hey!
Along the farm trail, the animal barn was open to our visitors on Saturday and the wonderful opportunity to hand feed some of our ruminants in the barn. You enjoyed feeding our sheep, alpacas and goats by hand – we had feedback that one of our baby alpacas loved this a little bit too much! You’re able to feed our ruminants every day at Godstone Farm, however this is usually via a conveyor belt mechanism, or fun feeding chutes, where the children can put food through the chute and the animals will eagerly await the food to arrive at their end and then gobble it up pretty swiftly. Keep a look out as you visit the feeding station near to the greenhouses, some of our goats are very clever and will even help you move the conveyor belt along so they can get their food quicker! We hope you enjoyed the unique experience of feeding these gorgeous animals by hand.
Dinosaur Roar joined his friend Dinosaur Squeak in the Dinosaur Roar discovery trail and LOVED meeting so many of our visitors in this woodland setting! We know you all had a roar-some time meeting these prehistoric friends. You can meet Dinosaur Squeak at set times daily during the school holidays, he’s a very friendly dinosaur.
£1 from each farm park entry ticket will be donated to Shooting Star, which will give our total a great boost. Foodies were happy on the day with delicious Shooting Star doughnuts on sale with 10% of each sale going to the charity, plus paint your own cookies and lucky dips – with a surprise to be won every time!
The Colour Run – Laughter, Paint and Pure Joy!
The highlight of the day was, without a doubt, Harrison’s Colour Run! Have you ever been to a colour run before? Whether you’re a newbie to this phenomenon, or a colour run fanatic, this really was the icing on the cake! A vibrant, joy-filled event that saw families and friends, young and slightly older, dash, stroll and skip their way around a paint-splattered course in the name of fun and fundraising. With every puff of powder paint came squeals of laughter, high-fives and big colourful smiles. It was wonderful to see so many of Harrison’s friends join us for the event too. It was a fantastic way to get active and messy while raising money for Shooting Star Children’s Hospices. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for everyone to be head to toe in bright bursts of pink, blue, purple, green or yellow – some of us may still have colour in our hair!! Whether you were taking part or throwing paint from the sidelines, the Colour Run at Godstone Farm brought everyone together for a cause that truly matters.
A Sense of Community
Of course the Colour Run was just one part of our Charity Fun Day, the whole day was nothing short of magical and the community spirit on display was a real reminder of what happens when people come together for a good cause.
Why are Godstone Farm Raising Money for Shooting Star Children’s Hospices?
Shooting Star Children’s Hospices is a charity that’s really close to our hearts here at Godstone Farm, so we are incredibly thankful to everyone who is supporting us with this. Shooting Star is a charity that has given SO much care and love to families facing unimaginably difficult times. Including our very own – frankly amazing – Carina, and her husband Mike whose gorgeous son Harrison passed away through cancer last year.  Carina’s now back at Godstone Farm and her Mike have poured their heart into this fundraising event, along with other members of their family.
Godstone Farm Staff Take on the Thorpe Park 10K
Nicola, Carina, Mike and other members of the Godstone Farm team are running a sweaty (and possibly slightly wobbly) 10k to boost our fundraising for Shooting Star. Here’s the Just Giving page with more of Harrison’s story.Â
A HUGE Thank You!
A gigantic, humongous, heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone who donated, participated, encouraged and supported! We’ve been blown away by your kindness and your generosity means so much. We’re still counting the final total but we’re delighted to say that we raised an incredible amount for Shooting Star Children’s Hospices, helping them to continue their vital work supporting children with life-limited conditions and their families.
We’ll be doing it all again next year, so get your white t-shirts ready and watch out for the date. Trust us, you really won’t want to miss it!!
Until then, thank you for being part of such a special day.
With love (and paint in our hair)
The Godstone Farm team
