The launch party on Thursday 8th September, 3.30pm to 9pm, was amazing.
Hundreds of people came, many of them bringing fantastic food – for which we are very grateful.
At 4 o’clock, local resident and star of the original St James Street Library video, Mr Mensah officially opened the building with the help of a large group of local schoolchildren .
It was a wonderful occasion, attended by the Waltham Forest Guardian (read their article on the day here) and seven local councillors. At that point, we had maybe two hundred people already. Many more came later.
Our E17 Art Trail exhibition was on the wall, the puppet theatre put on shows for the children (see pics below), and face painters in the children’s room were popular all afternoon. Above all, it was a chance for the community to enjoy and celebrate their new building.
The party continued as many more people came in after work, including Stella Creasy MP. Our donations buckets became heavier (helping our fundraising to get the building heated this winter) and Amarjit and Sultana in particular did some wonderful fundraising. The party spilled out onto the street.
The event was the culmination of five months of very hard work since we got the keys in April. Several thousand hours of volunteer work have since gone in on the building alone, and we are particularly grateful to the RaRa team of designers: Joe, Anna, Cameo, Eoin, Henry, Nina, Richard and Tom who have done such a wonderful job of furnishing the building for us and making it such an inspirational place. Theres a short video about Rara and the design team below:
Others have been extremely busy putting together our arts trail exhibitions, getting the children’s room and honesty library set up, recruiting and establishing our brilliant staff team – John, Natasha and Nathan, setting up The Mill as a registered charity, negotiating the lease, publicising developments, Jesse Richards creating our launch poster, putting together our newsletter, liaising with our funder, NESTA, the list is almost endless… it’s been an incredibly busy time.
For me, the sight of so many of the community enjoying the building – and offering to get involved as volunteers themselves – is incredibly rewarding. The community have reclaimed their public space and are in the process of making something very special.
Alison Griffin – Chair
