Big Church Day Out 2017

21 Jun, 2017

Picture the scene – blue BySea flags, a branded Land Rover, two willing volunteers and copious amounts of coffee as Sailors’ Society head off to West Sussex to serve those at Big Church Day Out 2017.

The BySea Land Rover, complete with a full barista style coffee machine in tow, headed up on Thursday in preparation while the rest of us arrived on the Friday to set up. With our tents pegged down and our stand good to go, thirsty food vendors excitedly tried our coffee and had great things to say about it before the rush of campers and day guests arrived that afternoon. We had a fantastic evening selling cup after cup of our Brazilian and Indian reserve coffee to the early bird campers while sharing stories about our work.

Finding your tent in the dark, while dancing around guy ropes in the rain proved an interesting task but after a night under the stars we were up and ready to go on the Saturday morning. Bands took to the stage and we had a steady stream of customers all day. We were able to share the message behind our coffee and encourage church individuals to see how reliant we really are upon seafarers here in the UK.

Sunday saw the heavens open but in true British style the public stayed put – and what more could they want than a hot cup of BySea coffee to warm them up!

The team swiftly headed up north to Cheshire to welcome those attending the weekend there.

We had a fantastic weekend in the south, despite being damp and tired.

Leila Hyde is Sailors' Society's public engagement administrator and can be found tweeting here.

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