Here we are on Sunday 22 November, a day of hard-won ease and reflection (which is the decorous way of saying it's been a day of flaking out). Nevertheless, today offers me the chance to present a few interesting facts and figures to round off our exhibition in Highcross for National Inter Faith Week 2009 and to offer a well-deserved thanks to all those people who played their part in making this event a success.
There were 99 individual slots on the rota; we had volunteers for 98 of those slots before the week started - though that one last elusive slot (between 4 and 6 on Wednesday afternoon) seemed determined to remain unfilled.
We gave out freebies (leaflets, bookmark, keyring, sticker) only to people who stopped (or slowed down) long enough to show their interest in the display; by the end of the week, we'd given away around 900 leaflets to such people.
We had a total of 57 different people volunteering on the stall across the week (59 if you count my children helping put it up on the first day, but I volunteered them!) This, in itself, was a testimony to the unity and diversity in action, right in front of the people of Leicester.
Highcross management told us to expect up to 400,000 "footfalls" over the course of the week; there was no way to count this, but I'm willing to to take their word for it!
So, thanks to all those who helped put up the exhibition, helped take it down and helped keep it going at all times in between: Ros Adam, Imran Ali, Dana Bagshaw, Grace Ballentyne, Harry Ballentyne, Irshad Baqui, Michelle Benn, Denise Bergman, Sumaya Budkovska, Raheema Caratella, Clare Carr, Rohini Corfield, Minou Cortazzi, Judith Devons, Amanda Fitton, Hannah Fitton, Monica Glover, Zee Zee Heine, Derek Hood, Doreen Hood, Laura Horton, David Hurwich, Farida Ijaz, Humeyra Seylan Izhar, Angela Jagger, Penny Jones, Kirti Joshi, Susthama Kim, Gwyneth Little, Jan Macdonald, Scott Macdonald, Lizzie Maitland, Sheila Markham, Ramesh Mashru, Stephanie Maud, Barry Naylor, Tony Nelson, Jai Parmar, Surinder Sandhu, Maureen Sier, Noel Singh, Ian Snaith, Manjula Sood, Chris Starbuck, Sudana, Gursharan Thandi, Kaspalita Thompson, Narendra Waghela, Abdul Waheed, Elizabeth Wayne, Simon Williams, Liz Wilson, Arthur Winner, Barbara Winner, Teresa Wright. If I have missed anyone out, my apologies - I'll keep updating this until everyone who should be included is included. Thanks to the management people at Highcross (Michael Holland, Suzie Wood and Steve Farmer) who were generous and helpful beyond all expectation. Thanks to Mukesh Barot and Melanie Wright at East Midlands Ambulance Service for organising their contribution toward the cost of the display; to the Faiths Forum for the East Midlands for their financial contribution too; Jason King, Alistair Bell and their team at printing.com in Charles Street for speedy, efficient, sympathetic and creative service in getting the display and website ready on time; to Gloria Jean's Coffee, for providing a safe haven (even that one day when I managed to tip half a regular latte all over my hand!) Their iced Bakewell tart saved my day more than once. And last but not least, an enormous vote of thanks to Julie-Ann Heath. If it weren't for Julie-Ann and her powers of gentle persuasion - which she worked on me as much as on anyone else - none of this would have happened.
I thought of doing this blog, just to cover this week. Should I continue? I think I will, for a while at least ...
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