Adventure day brings joy to police families
Members and their families gathered at Blackwell Court Adventure for another thrilling day on Wednesday 28 May, for our annual ‘A Day to Remember’ event.
The event is the brainchild of our Chairman John Williams who wanted to bring members together and give a little something back to those who subscribe monthly to the West Midlands Police Benevolent Fund.
“This year’s adventure day was another great success,” explains John. “The event has been running for six years now and is proving a massive hit with members and their families year after year.”
Blackwell Court Adventure is a non-profit organisation offering over 20 indoor and outdoor activities, set in 50 acres of beautiful parkland.
“For this year’s event, we decided to incorporate a new activity into the action-packed programme,” added John.
“As well as the old favourites including Giant Zip Wire, Crate Stacking, Tree Climbing, Dual Zip Wire and Archery, families enjoyed a non-impact game of LASER TAG too. It was amusing to see the competitiveness spilling out between family members and a lot of fun was had by all.”
Earlier this year, members were invited to express their interest by entering a ballot to attend the event. Many families got in touch to say they would like to attend and a total of 80 places were subsequently offered. The cost of the entire adventure day was paid for by the Fund.
It was an early start, which included a ‘meet and greet’ from the Ben Fund’s General Manager, Steve Newbury followed by a short safety briefing by the Blackwell staff.
Then it was straight into the day’s activities. The day was rounded off with toasted marshmallows and S’mores and the Ben Fund treated everyone to an ice-cream before families headed home, tired, a little dirty but very happy.
“Our intention every year is to offer a bit of old-fashioned fun, away from the daily distractions of devices and phones and provide an opportunity for families to have some quality time together. We had all ages and abilities attend and it was so nice to see everyone having such a great time,” explained Steve.
We have received lots of lovely feedback, including these messages of thanks.
“We had a great time. Brilliant day and really well put together. Would love to attend again. The S’mores and ice cream were a great touch also. The kids loved it.”
“Thank you and the team again for such a brilliant day we had today. We laughed together all day, came home brilliantly dirty and worn out. My youngest suddenly lost all his fears and climbed high on the crates and more or less threw himself down the zip wire and we all got a little bit too competitive at laser tag! Hopeful we’ll be able join you all again soon”
“A great opportunity to have fun and make memories with the family -young and old”
“Fantastic day for kids and big kids! Really well organised and lots of fun! Thank you very much”
“The most fun I have had in ages”
“Our first time and wish we could do it every year. Thanks everyone”
“Amazing day in every way! Fantastic opportunity to try loads of new activities! Thank you!!”
“An amazing day we laughed all day!”
“A brilliant family day out for all ages. Nice to see my teenagers not attached to a screen or in their bedrooms for once!!”
“Superb family day out. Well organised and lots of fun had by all”
“My thanks to you and Steve, and all the team that put the day together and took care of us, it was clear that a lot of hard work and planning had gone into making it an absolutely fantastic day and you could tell that all that attended had a great time.”
The event would not have been possible without the tremendous efforts of so many people. We would like to thank the staff at Blackwell Adventure for providing a great programme of activities once again this year. A big thank you to serving officer and Ben Fund Operations Committee member, Kay Bargewell and her volunteers for their help and to Misty for the facepainting.
Finally, thank you to all the families who attended, for joining in, being great sports and for making the day a wonderful success.
We are pleased to announce that we will be doing it all over again next year. Further details about the events will be available on our website very soon.
