Foster with Bucks' Big Day Out at the Bucks County Show
On Thursday 1st September, members of the Foster with Bucks Recruitment team joined colleagues from the wider council at the Bucks County Show in Weedon Park on the outskirts of Aylesbury.
The Bucks County Show is one of the best one day agricultural shows in the country and one of Buckinghamshire’s main summer attractions. Andy Turner, Mark Fawkes, Nanette Arthur and Debbie Hughes from the fostering recruitment team were on hand to dish out information about fostering, and chat to people about the needs of the service.
Our tried-and-tested 'click for a cake' format from previous events was replaced this year with our 'Bagatelle for Bowling' - an opportunity to win a free bowling session with Rogue Leisure in exchange for a go on our bagatelle game. We asked for people to give us a like or follow on social media in exchange for their attempt.
First Prize: A Free Bowling Experience for 6
We were thrilled to have been very kindly donated a bowling experience by our friends over at Rogue Leisure. Mat Read, General Manager of Rogue Leisure in Aylesbury, was pleased to donate the prize to us back in the summer, and we were waiting for an excellent opportunity to use it.
Whether you’re bowling with your family, organising a night out with friends, or want to make use of one of their party packages, tenpin bowling is fantastic (and weather-friendly) fun for everyone.
With gutter barriers, lighter balls and ramps available, they level out the competition and give the kids a real chance to beat their parents. And, if you hate bowling shoes, don’t worry, they’re happy for you to wear your own footwear.
Bagatelle
In order to win the free bowling, we asked participants to play a game of bagatelle and register a score of over 100. What's Bagatelle, I hear you ask? Bagatelle is a billiards-derived game of chance, in which the object is to get a number of balls - we played with 6 on the day - past small metal pins into holes on the board. Imagine pinball without the flippers!
Players would flick the ball 6 times, and a maximum score of 900 was available.
Those that were there on the day will know that there was absolutely no* cheating allowed, and that balls that went in the 'gutters' were absolutely not allowed to be picked out and flicked again. If a score of over 100 was achieved, we asked for their email address so we could let them know if they had won or not.
*there was a fair amount of cheating allowed!
The Main Attraction!
Our game and prize proved to be a winning combination, as we were joined by over 100 people, including Buckinghamshire Council leader, Councillor Martin Tett (see below) who were both able to register a winning score and be eligible for the prize!
Although the game was great fun, what mattered were the conversations we were able to have with the people who came to join us. We were able to share many conversations with people who had fostered in the past, or who had been having thoughts of fostering in the future and answer their questions in a fairly laid-back environment. We were able to hand out lots of information packs, and even had several people sign up to join us at our next online information evening, which was great.
The winner was Harry, who was picked at random from all the players who achieved a score of over 100, but the highest score of the day was registered by Amanda, who scored 861!
