This year we took the opportunity to join Rushcliffe Borough Council in marking Armed Forces Day 2011 at the Bridgford Park in West Bridgford, the nationwide celebration to honour the work of the UK armed forces, past and present.

The new Mayer of Rushcliffe Cllr Gordon Moore opened the day thanking everyone for his or her attendance. He went on to congratulate the organiser Nicola and her team for putting on such a splendid event.

He hoped everyone would have a great day of entertainment, he was then whisk away to his next engagement promising to return at the end of the day, and true to his word, he came back for the proms concert.

Our day started meeting up at Tony and Mavis house and we all travelled in convoy to the venue to set up our section of the Marque, Nicola the event organiser had given us a prime spot.

As in previous years, we shared our exhibition space with Blesma so we had the advantage of drawing people into the Marque who were interested in both charities.

With everyone moving tables into place and preparing, the Marque for our NNVC and Blesma exhibits with so many things to display it was all hands to the pump.

Setting up the Victoria Cross display was our first objective giving the early visitors the opportunity to see our exhibition, this was included in one of the highlights of the day the Salute the Soldier exhibition – a display of stories, photographs and poetry which will be created as part of an intergeneration art and living history project.

An assortment of Military hats and equipment was made available for the children giving them the chance to dress in soldiers clothing as part of the living history project, trying on such things as tin helmets combat clothing and army webbing etc.

We then started to display the wonderful print from the Brian Fare collection and these proved to be a very popular addition to our fund raising efforts, Pete was very busy giving detailed explanations of Brian’s work.

We then moved on to the Blesma display Trish had made some beautiful greeting cards which proved to be very popular along with the promotional things from HQ we had pens, wrist bands and tea shirts all with the Blesma logo

Once the display was complete, we settled down for a well-earned cup of coffee before the rush of people came in, both Trish and Mavis had done us proud with a good spread of food and treats to take us through the day.

Our aim is to promote the heroes who have shown their bravery beyond the call duty the interest shown to the recipients of the VC was fantastic and the bravery of our soldiers in current conflicts, the generosity of the public was heart-warming supporting both NNVC and Blesma with their donations.

This was truly a family day with sporting celebrations from 11am - 3pm, featuring free practical challenges such as climbing, cricket, body zorbing, karting, athletics, and circus skills.

As well as displays from the British Limbless Ex Service Men's Association, Nottingham, and Nottinghamshire Victoria Cross Committee, there were stalls from other welfare organisation such as the Royal British Legion, Help for Heroes.

There were also representatives from numerous uniformed youth originations such as the Scouts, the Girl Guides, and Air Training Corp.

Food and drinks were on sale in the Scouts mess tent, plus an onsite licensed bar with various food venders around the site.

With numerous public houses and restaurants surrounding the park, all offering special discounts to armed service personnel and their families.

Throughout the day we were entertained by many wonderful and very different type of live music and entertainment, including:

from 2pm The West Bridgford Social Singers

from 4pm The Robin Hood Cadet Corps of Drums

from 5pm The Nottinghamshire Police Pipe Band

from 6pm Erin Parker and the Sounds of the 40s Show

As the day came to a close the culmination of the event was the council’s popular annual ‘last night of the proms’ style family concert at 7pm which has been specially moved to tie in with the day.

We cleared the Marque, got out the food and wine, sat down, and joined in the festivities all of us enjoying the wonderful music, entertained by Nottingham Concert Band and guest singers with a rousing programme of popular British themed classics such as Jerusalem, Land of Hope and Glory and Rule Britannia to end the day in patriotic fashion.

The organisers estimated the attendance was over 2000 people, And I am sure a good day was had by all.