Waterside Christmas Market
Despite the awful weather that hit the island last weekend, the Waterside Pool were still able to hold their first ever Christmas Market at the revised time of Sunday morning 16th December.
With the support and cover of marquees supplied by Coast and Country Marquees, the waterside community enjoyed various stalls full of festive goodies and gift ideas, including Isle of Wight Pearl, Souporium, Grace’s Bakery, Isle Personalise It, Maria…Naturally, Waterside Raffle, Waterside Tombola to name a few and Santa’s Grotto in the “switched off” sauna.
The market wasn’t just for the external visitors either. The children who have lessons on Sunday morning also got to meet the Waterside’s special visitor in the sauna after their lessons, where they received a free photo with the jolly man in red. Long serving members of staff James Dodds and Marco de Carvalho dressed up as Santa and his Elf to create the magic for Waterside’s younger members.
The Waterside Grand Christmas Raffle has also seen tremendous success and was drawn on Monday 17th December by the Friends of Waterside Pool, who hold a monthly quiz night all year round to raise funds for the pool. The raffle has seen prizes being donated since the start of November. The Waterside Pool has also donated a term’s worth of lessons or a month’s free membership towards the raffle. We also received wonderful donations from Tapnell Farm Park, Appley Manor Hotel, Rosemary Vineyard, Mermaid Gin, Graces Bakery, Barrow Boys Green Grocers, D W Jarvis Family Butchers, Majestic Wine , Tesco , Georgina Bottriell Photography, Tropic Skincare and many more prizes from our wonderful members.
The Waterside especially wanted to highlight Barrow Boys Green Grocer’s, Grace’s Bakery, DW Jarvis Family Butchers and Appley Manor Hotel who have donated and supported the Waterside again this year. They are all local family run businesses and we can't thank them enough for their on going support over the years.
We also want to thank everyone who came and contributed on the day of the market. In spite of the weather the community spirit was high and helped to raise nearly £1000 towards the pool and the Waterside Community Trust as well as provide a platform to support local businesses.