‘The Blooming Great Tea Party Tour in Spennymoor’
June 2014
DurhamGate and Success (North East) worked in partnership with the newly established
Spennymoor Marie Curie Fundraising group to organise:
‘The Blooming Great Tea Party Tour in Spennymoor’
This was a creative twist on the usual Marie Curie Blooming Great Tea Party campaign and provided
a great opportunity to bring the community together for a fantastic cause.
DurhamGate, Success (North East) and the Marie Curie Fundraising Group organised the event and
were responsible for health and safety, liaison with schools, booking performers, liaising with press
and community groups etc.
A plea went out for funding to local businesses and organisations, the response was overwhelming.
Thank you to the sponsors who helped to fund the event:
Stanley Black and Decker
£500
Croxdale Citroen
£450
All UK Adjusters
£100
Match funding was provided by:
Thorn Lighting
£1000
DurhgamGate
Conservatory World
£150
Success (North East)
Councillor Geldard and Lawton
£200
Spennymoor AAP
Town Council
£200
Cre8
Livin
£500
Fox Cub
Spennymoor Youth Council
£500
Marie Curie Spennymoor fundraising team
And to all other volunteers who gave their time and worked to support a fantastic community event
for a really good cause.
Any organisation who provided funding secured the following:


Company logo displayed on all marketing material which included: A large banner at
Thinford roundabout (seen by over 600,000 people per week), a large banner on the side of
the Tea Party Bus and all leaflets and flyers
Two seats on the Tea Party Tour Bus(Optional) to enable them to join the tea party
Where the funding went:
Item
Cost
Tea Party Tour
Open Top Bus Hire x 2 days
PA System on Bus
Professional dancers-to get the tea party dancing!
450 per day £900
900 per day £1800
Tea party themed stilt walkers
3000 tea pot templates
10 tea pots depicting children’s designs
Game props and prizes
Tea Party (Tea, coffee, cakes, props, publicity etc.)
100
400
200
Approx. £100 per school £1000
Total
4400
DurhamGate Summer Festival Great Blooming Community Tea Party
Gazebos
£200
Side shows
£650
Table/chair hire
£200
Face painting
£100
Publicity
£500
PA System
£200
Walkabout entertainment
£750
Tea Cups
£350
Total
2950
As the events were fully funded it meant that 100% of monies raised were donated to Marie Curie
Cancer Care.
Blooming Great Tea Party Tour in Spennymoor- What did we do?
We hired an open top bus to take the Marie Curie Blooming Great Tea Party on Tour around 10
schools Spennymoor on the 19th and 20th June 2014. The tour incorporated the following aspects:
A Tea Party in every school:
Each school organised their very own Blooming Great Tea Party in aid of Marie Curie. Schools got
creative and came up with ideas to make their tea party blooming great!
Tea Party Bus:
The open top bus arrived at each school tea party and provided 1 hour of fun, games and
entertainment. This included music, dance, stilt walkers and tea pot themed games.
The party bus carried a ‘tour team’ which included Spennymoor Town and Youth Mayor, as well as 2
representatives from each school, representatives from the Marie Curie fundraising team,
DurhamGate, Success(NE),DurhamGate DofE students, Spennynews and any other financial
sponsors.
Design a Tea Pot Competition:
Each child was invited to design their very own teapot. A teapot template was issued to all schools in
advance of the tea party, 12 designs were chosen by school and were collected by the tea party tour
representatives. The chosen designs from each school were displayed at the DurhamGate Summer
Festival - One Big Blooming Community Tea Party (Details Below). Ten local businesses who supply a
‘great cup of tea’ in Spennymoor were invited to judge the competition and one winning teapot
from each school was selected to be transformed into a real teapot. The winning designers will be
presented with their real teapot at a school assembly at a later date. (see below)
Design a Tea Pot Competition Winners:
School
North Park
Tudhoe Moor Nursery
Whitworth Park
Ox Close Nursery
King Street
The Oaks
Middlestone Moor
St Charles
Tudhoe Colliery
Rosa Street
Judge
Divine & Delicious
Clems
Wetherspoons
The Kiln Rooms
Fulltums
Starbucks
The Fox Cub
Casa D’Italia
Jeff O’ Heir Mayor Of Spennymoor
KJ’s Coffee Shot
Winner
Joleigh Dodds
Chloe Diaz
Ethan Baker
Ruby Halliburton
William Jackson
Christian Jackson
Jodie Clement
Jack Gullidge
Abbie Newman
Mollie Sudder
Feedback from the Tour Team:
o What a fab experience and for a brilliant cause. The memories from this day will stay with
me forever 
o Mad Hatter – GREAT
o Lots of happy smiling faces – Great to see
o The whole day has been fantastic me and my little boy have loved it
o I think it was gooooood!
o Fast and fun
o Really good day the entertainment was excellent
o Amazing and great. DO IT AGAIN
o Today was amazing – We should do an event in aid of charity every year
o Today was exciting and fun can’t wait for tomorrow
o Blooming great fun exciting
o AMAZING – Loved it
o It was excellent I had a lot of fun – but was a little bit tired by the end.
o Fun, busy, hard, tiring
o MAD
o FUN
o A great day for kids the mad hatter was really good
o Really enjoyed today, lots of fun and great for the kids
o I think it was FANTASTIC
o Best day of my life 
o I liked going to the Nursery Schools
o Brilliant day, thank-you for inviting me
o Today was brilliant,
o Fun, happy and hectic 
o A great team event creating awareness for Marie Curie Cancer through visual music and
dance and theatre, every age took part and enjoyed the day 
o A fantastic experience for all of the young people in the schools who took part, it was great
being on the bus and seeing everyone’s reaction.
DurhamGate Summer Festival-One Big Blooming Great Tea Party!
The whole event culminated with One Big Blooming Great Community tea party which was held at
DurhamGate on Sunday 22nd June 1pm-4pm. The whole community was invited to the event and
incorporated community performers, stalls, Marie Curie fundraising, side shows and tea of course!
Organisation
Tudhoe Moor Nursery
Oaks School
Spennymoor AAP
Spennymoor Town Council
Rosa Street
DurhamGate DofE Candidates/Spennymoor Youth Council
St Johns Ambulance
Beautiful Brides
Spennymoor Leisure Centre
Slimming World
CAMHS
Trinity Methodist Church
One Point
Reki Gift Company
Police
Tea Stall
Glittery girl
Type of Stall
Arts & Crafts/Advertising Nursery
Enterprising Goods
Promotion
Promotion
Name the Teddy in a Tea Cup
Cake stall
Promotion and first aid
Sweet Cart Miss Teen Spennymoor
Promotion
Promotion
Promotion
Promotion
Promotion
Promotion
Promotion
Marie Curie Spennymoor
Face Painting
Feedback from all of the stall holders, staff & volunteers was very positive and there was a buzz in
the town with lots of conversation taking place on social media.
Counting up the money:
Each school made a donation to the tour team and at the community event the stalls made a
donation or fundraised in some way. All of the money was counted up and came to a magnificent
£2663 – this was boosted even further when DurhamGate pledged an additional £1000 taking the
total raised over the 3 days to £3663. This would not have been possible without the support of the
sponsors, schools, the community and the volunteers.