Lantern Making & Coffee Morning at Wellspring
Wellspring Methodist Church Cheadle hosted their annual Macmillan Coffee Morning on the 26th of September. Never missing an opportunity to serve their community, the welcoming group added a twist. This year's event also hosted a lantern-making workshop as part of Cheadle's upcoming arts festival.
Donations from thousands of Coffee Mornings, big and small across the country, help raise vital funds to support the almost 3.5 million people in the UK living with cancer, from the moment they are diagnosed, throughout treatment and beyond. Tables were set, tea was poured, and a beautiful selection of home-made cakes was served to visitors by the team. Jane Ratcliffe & Coral Robinson, two of the servers on the day, joined Minister Julie Hassall and Cheadle Town Council Mayor Phil Routledge for the happy picture above.
As in previous years, the Cheadle Arts Festival, due to take place later this month, will finish with a flurry of beautiful lanterns parading down the High Street. Outside Arts have commissioned a series of lantern-making workshops across the town where young and old are encouraged to create their own lantern using willow withies, long thin tapered strips of willow which are specially cut so that they can be used for weaving all kinds of things. Lantern making started hundreds of years ago in China, and Holly explained to us how lanterns could be created. One of the easiest shapes to create is a pyramid, where you create a sturdy base and add your design to the sides. The team makes the candle arrangement ahead of time, and this is added along with a special paper cover for the sides, which helps protect the flame from being extinguished in a draft.
This year's theme for the arts festival is Celebrating 100 Years of Winnie-the-Pooh, A.A. Milne's classic character who, along with his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood, teaches us about friendship through stories, poems, and illustrations. The lantern parade takes place on the 24th of October, and workshop details can be found on the website cheadle-arts.co.uk.
Lantern Making & Coffee Morning at Wellspring
