Under clear blue skies and a warm autumnal sun, Jessica Denton and her uncle James Hughes took on the challenge of the Great North Run raising £1350 for the Youth Sport Trust & Meningitis Research Foundation. Having trained for several months, they were delighted with their finishing times of 2 hours 25 minutes coming 28958th out of a total 54,000 runners. As they went over the finishing line, the Red Arrows began their breathtaking aerial display – an apt salute to a fantastic effort!
Jessica has been so bitten by the running bug that she is now considering attempting the London Marathon….watch this space!
The theme of this year’s Harry’s Lunch was ‘butterflies’ to tie in with the Harry’s Garden event at Butterfly World. Around 100 people attended the lunch, held at St. Katharine’s, Parmoor, and helped raise just under £2500 for the Meningitis Research Foundation which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary. The event was organised by Wendi Parcell, Florence MacGregor, Sue Robertson & Judi.
In addition to a fantastic array of butterfly themed raffle prizes donated by local businesses, individuals and internet companies there was also a silent auction featuring a number of unique items such as original artwork, a bespoke butterfly cushion and a signed copy of Heston Blumenthal’s The Big Fat Duck Cookbook.
Fern Alder, the award winning garden designer spoke about how she created Harry’s Garden, and about how the sunflowers and sweetpeas grown by guests at last year’s event were used. Guests were able to see how the garden progressed from little more than a building site to the finished result from a display of photographs, brochures and news articles. Upon leaving, they were presented with Butterfly World discount vouchers and a packet of Mr Fothergill’s Butterfly World seed collection.
Harry's Garden and the Butterfly World site has now become the most amazing display of wild flowers. It is described as another world and a wonderful display of colour with tens of thousands of plants. See attached links for updates....
Congratulations to Rory kempson who was awarded Harry's Cup at the Marlow Rugby Club Marlow Merlins Team. This is the team Harry played for and the award was made at the end of season presentation on Friday 19th June. A great evening for the boys and Mums and Dads as Ali Buckle conducted proceedings (in the way only he can) and reminded us all of a great season. Richard and Judi presented the cup to Rory.
This is a lovely way for Harry to be remembered by his mates from his rugby team.
Harry’s Garden, part of the Future Gardens/Butterfly World Project was officially opened on 4th June by Emilia Fox & David Bellamy – both patrons of Butterfly World.Around 1000 people attended the event, including 300 representatives from the gardening and national press. Clive Farrell, founder of the project, made special reference to Harry’s Garden in his speech to the press and later introduced us to Emilia Fox who has sponsored the garden.
As the press entered through the rugby posts they were greeted by bubbles from a bubble machine and Fern Alder (garden designer) wearing some impressive butterfly wings.Many of the flowers, including the alliums and sweet peas were in full bloom and looking fantastic, others such as the wild flower bank will come into their own as the summer progresses.The sunflowers (grown by Harry’s friends) are getting much taller & sturdier but won’t flower until later on, so children from Jack & Jill Nursery produced some handprint sunflowers for us to place in the border especially for press day. June Kingsbury’s resin football and rugby balls, strategically placed in Fern’s experimental straw bales, were much admired as were Fern’s green hedgehogs. & naturalistic plantings. We were delighted that Iain & Neil from the Meningitis Research Foundation and Sue from the Child Bereavement Charity were able to come along, and hope that Harry’s Garden will help raise awareness of the wonderful work these two charities do.Harry’s Garden is open until October and will then be replaced by a new charity garden each year.
The 12 Future Gardens competition gardens are all strikingly different with themes ranging from ‘Narratives of Nature’ to ‘Urban Greening’ and created by both established international designers and some less well known. They have all been designed to develop over the 4 months that the gardens remain open. The main site is amazing and children in particular will love to explore the Very Hungry Caterpillar’s edible garden, the Theatre of Insects and the ‘Through the Flowerpot’ garden, where like Alice through the looking glass you are shrunk to Lilliputian size.There’s also a giant leafcutter ant sitting atop an anthill on the edge of the site as well as a tropical butterfly house – a temporary structure until the giant dome is completed in 2011.
Although this is just Phase 1 there is lots to see and do and makes a great day out.
It’s located just off junction 21A of the M25 on the outskirts of St Albans – around a 30minutes drive from Marlow.
Many kind words have been left for Harry when donations have been made in support of events and for charities. These are listed below and please click on them if you wish to read the tributes.
June sees the start of the Meningitis Research Foundation’s 20th year of supporting families affected by the disease, raising awareness and sponsoring research into the disease that will ultimately lead to a cure.
Friends, teammates & family including those from Harry’s lunch (Sept 2008), Jack & Jill Playgroup, Quoitings Playgroup & Spinfield School have been busy growing sunflowers & sweetpeas to plant up in Harry’s Garden.
Fern Alder, the designer is working on site and the garden is beginning to take shape ready for Press Day on June 4th. The garden incorporates sporting references (including rugby posts!), a giant hedgehog made from grasses, a wild flower bank, ball shaped flowers and woven willow branches. A local farmer donated the straw bales (ref cricket!) and June Kingsbury has created some wonderful scuptured feature rugby balls, footballs and minature hedgehogs.
From then on, visitors will be able to tour not only Harry’s Garden, but also the Future Gardens Competition gardens, and the Butterfly World site. There will be a temporary Butterfly House until the main dome opens in 2010 and having recently visited the site, it is really impressive.
Click here to see photos of a recent visit to the site.
The Harry Mills Memorial Cup was presented to the u12s Champions by Andy Gomersall – in this case a draw between Jersey and ?? after a nail biting final.
It was particularly touching that Rhys Durkin from London Irish, winners of the Cup in 2008, and his father John came especially to support Harry’s Trophy. Rhys suffered from meningitis when he was younger and his father attributes his recovery to a trial drug from Chile.
136 teams attended this year’s tournament which features A & B competitions at all ages ranging from u7s to u12s.
The Harry Mills Memorial Cup was presented to Luke Southby of Spinfield School at the final Cross Country Event of the season in March 2009. Luke has excelled at cross country running for a number of seasons and recently has shown great strength of character in battling back to full fitness after injury.
Softcat, a Marlow based software company that has been ranked in the Top 3 Best Companies to work for, chose Harry as their Charity of the Year.
Over a period of 12 months the company and its employees have undertaken activities including the Santa Fun Run, Skydiving to hosting a May Ball &, Auction and Hot Potato and curry Day. The Meningitis Research Foundation has visited the company to give a presentation on the work of the charity.
Softcat Have recently presented the Mills family with a further cheque for £6,000 making the total for the year £13,000. Peter Kelly founder of Softcat and Martin Hellawell Managing Director were presented with a pair of Harry's socks which were worn throughout the day whereupon they donated a further £100 - click here to read more.
Over 100 talented athletes from a range of sports attended the 2009 Talent Camp on 11th January 2009 at Loughborough University. They were joined at the Closing Ceremony by Jason Gardener, Olympic 4 x 100m relay Gold Medallist who presented the awards including the Harry Mills Team Maker. This year, the award was won by Klara Weaver, a 14 year old rower, a unanimous decision by the coaching and mentoring staff.
Klara has actively included and supported the Rowing team during the camp and as a direct result of her influence, all the other rowers have benefitted hugely from the whole National Talent Orientation experience. Throughout the workshops she was an excellent role model, leading by example. Klara actively encouraged her group to think and come up with suggestions and had a very positive impact on all the rowers resulting in the whole group becoming more professional in their approach to the workshops.
Klara shone particularly in the Army Command tasks – the Army Officer leading the team building session said, ‘Klara had some fantastic problem solving ideas and achieved respect from her team mates through a calm and confident manner.’
Klara’s Mum writes:
Klara moved to the UK from Baltimore, Maryland USA almost 10 years ago when she was 6 years old. She considers herself both American and British (and indeed is a dual passport holder), which places her in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. This is perfectly appropriate, as Klara has always been attracted to water and has swum competitively since she was 4 years old. She is a Pisces so perhaps that explains it!
At 12, when she was in Year 7 at Latymer Upper School in West London, she announced that she was going to swim for GB in the Olympics. Then, two years later, she discovered rowing. She immediately fell in love with the river and the feeling of gliding over the water at all hours and in all weather conditions. Latymer is lucky to have a boathouse right on the Thames, and she is able to train 6 days a week. In Year 10, Klara and her partner won gold in the women’s J15 doubles race beating out over 20 competitors. Sport has been a very important part of her life and has helped to shape her goals and aspirations. She now has her sights set on 2012 and rowing for Great Britain.
Klara is deeply honoured to have received this award, which is named after such a wonderful team player. Working with and motivating others as part of a team has always been important to her in life and in rowing, and she hopes to put these skills to good use as she develops her rowing career and reaches her full potential both as a competitor and as a person.
The 2ndRFU Talking Rugby Dinner was held at Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre, on Friday 28th November 2008. This is the evening prior to the England v New Zealand match at Twickenham and was attended by RFU Past president Peter Trunkfield, Simon Winman (RFU Head of Funding & Facilities), Ed Morrison (RFU Elite Referee Manager) and Dave Loveridge (New Zealand All Blacks 1980s). Thanks to Alan Black, RFU Leisure Rugby Manager for remembering Harry.
£750 was raised for the Harry and The Meningitis Research Foundation through the kind donation (the second time Trevor has donated a decanter) of a hand blown ‘last drop’ crystal decanter donated by Trevor Fulton.
