Totton and Eling Carnival 2017

On Saturday June 10th, the SDSA entered the annual Totton and Eling Carnival.

We have entered for the last 3 years, but for the last 2 years we have had to pull out at the very last moment due to lack of help, so we were pleased that we were given another chance to this year.

This year, we opted to enter as Walkers instead of asking for a lorry/float, so if we couldn’t get a lot of help it wouldn’t matter as much.

The carnival theme was Animal Crackers, so we wore animal masks kindly produced by John Knight, and the wheelchairs had masks attached wherever possible.

We were judged before the carnival procession moved off, and were awarded 3rd place in the walkers category, which was UNBELIEVABLE!! When we entered 3 years ago, we were award 3rd place in the float category.

The residents of Totton and Eling were very generous and we were often holding the procession up as everyone wanted to put their donations into our buckets so we had to keep stopping.

The SDSA don’t directly get the money we collected in our buckets, as all of the money collected by everyone in the carnival is pooled, and is then distributed to local charities and good causes, which SDSA has been in 1 or 2 of recent years.

Based on the weight of our buckets, we collected a lot for the carnival fund “pot”.

Thanks to all SDSA members and friends who turned out and supported us. We all had a great day although there are some sore feet I believe, and a massive thanks too, to all the Saints fans along the way who burst into OWTSGMI along with us.  Roll on next year so we can do it again.