We Brought Our Carnival Spirit to Norwich!
Young people from our Boom! Young Carers service, along with their families, were invited to join us in embracing the carnival spirit as we took to the streets of Norwich for the Lord Mayor’s parade. Our colourful flags, hand-drawn banners and vibrantly decorated quadricycle (powered by our hard-working cyclists!) all helped to encourage The Benjamin Foundation positive energy to shine through!
As the Lord Mayor’s charity of the year, all money raised from the procession goes towards supporting The Benjamin Foundation and our Boom! Young Carers. We are thankful for the opportunity from the Lord Mayor and Sheriff, giving us the platform to share the incredible work of Boom! to the Norwich community. Money raised from the collection totalled a fantastic £723.09, helping us to continue delivering positive outcomes through Boom!
Preparations began weeks earlier where we tasked The Benjamin Foundation community to share their creative might! With support from the Norwich Civic Office and their creative team of artists, we invited our young carers to spend an afternoon stretching their imagination to design and decorate a selection of butterfly wings to wear throughout the procession! To add to these costumes, we were kindly donated £300 by Vincent Burch to purchase colourful t-shirts which complimented our flags wonderfully!
We also invited our wellbeing services and nurseries to show their skills by helping us decorate our office for when the carnival atmosphere reaches our Head Office on St Andrews Street! Vibrant pinks, purples, oranges and reds were all colours used for decoration and encouraged the positive energy for our procession walkers as they strolled on by!
And if our noisy role in the procession and eye-catching office enhancements weren’t enough, we also held our stall in Chapelfield Gardens speaking to those interested in learning more about our work – even grabbing an Instagram-worthy photo with the Lord Mayor and Sheriff!
Those supported by The Benjamin Foundation, as well as friends and families, had a fantastic day–out soaking in the great atmosphere of the Celebration Weekend!
You can find more joyful photos below by taking a scroll through our gallery!
Photos courtesy of Norwich City Council and Jay Patient.