Thanks to Hay Castle trust and Heather and Matt from the Crafters cafe we were yet again able to spend a wonderful day at the castle doing activities to highlight our demand for a kinder and fairer asylum system. We were fortunate enough on this occasion to have been given the use of the Clore room as well as the great hall which made it much more comfortable and warm for all the pupils from Hay School to visit and make willow framed ragged hearts.

Heather and Matt had worked very hard for at least 2 days before making the willow hearts and preparing the material. Heather and Ailsa continued to make some more hearts throughout the day as we’d not quite anticipated the number of children who might want to visit. Between 10 and 3.15 all 6 year groups from the school visited with teachers and teaching assistants and all made hearts that they were able to take away with them. The hearts were completed with a ribbon and a parcel tag that had information about HBTSR and space to put a message or a name on. About 160 hearts were made and most importantly all seemed to enjoy the making and the finished product. Rev Anna read a story from Refugee story books to each class as they worked. [ Anna chose Refuge, My name is not Refugee, When the War came, The Suitcase and The Wisp] Thanks to Sue, Matt, Lou, Melrose and Margaret who helped the children with knot tying.

During the day we were joined by a number of supporters including Jane Dodds MS and Our Mp David Chadwick sent his best wishes as he was unable to join us due to a full diary. Lawrence, Claire, and Rowland spent most of their time in the hall talking to visitors and were joined by Melrose, Robert, Virginia, and Sean for varying periods of time. The hall felt less cosy than the Clore room despite a fire being lit.

All in all a very successful day when we were able to promote the work of the group to a variety of people including a Greek couple who gave us a donation and mentioned how pleased they were to see that some people like them were friendly towards refugees. They mentioned the recent loss of life in the Mediterranean and said how sad it was that after so many centuries of apparent civilisation that mankind still fought with each other.

Every day is a school day apparently and we learned a new use for the word ‘Slay’ when applied to Matt by class 5 – now used as a compliment to mean doing something extremely well or being awesome at something. So there we are… a well deserved compliment indeed.

Thanks so much to all the people who helped , to all visitors who were so complimentary and to the Castle trust for allowing us to use the space. Thanks also to all the Castle staff and volunteers who made us so welcome. Thanks to Hay school for joining with the activities with such enthusiasm.

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