A message from the Northumberland Day organisers
Hello everyone
This has been an unprecedented year, as I am sure you will all agree. We looked set to really build on a wave of euphoria following our successful Northumbies Awards evening that the White Swan in Alnwick last year and then had so many community groups signed up to our Parish Flag Challenge. And then came coronavirus.
Anyway, we have had to regroup and draw upon what we have – not what we don’t have. We have now created some online and virtual ways to celebrate Northumberland Day this year, so that we need not miss out. If you head to www.northumberlandday.co.uk and the 2020 page, you will see the resources we have created. We are also running a Northumberland Day Pub Quiz, with support from Jannick Genouw at A Taste of Northumbria in Alnwick.
I have tried to give children some fun and games courtesy of Northumbear but, most importantly, I have tried to thank just some of those who have made our previous 3 Northumberland Days so successful, by creating a quiz around you and encouraging people to visit the websites of those of you who have supported us, either as participants, sponsors or just morale boosting supporters. I could not include everyone within 30 questions and it very much depended on what information I could glean from websites, but I have done what I could to give as many as possible the credit they deserved from being such fantastic supporters of the county day.
I am determined that this year will not be a step back but a step forwards. We can all celebrate Northumberland Day simply by sharing news and pictures on Sunday and showing that we cannot be defeated by a virus. We have created a logo for you to download at the 2020 section of the website that will allow you to send thanks to who ever you need to say thank you to this Northumberland Day and you can download this from that page at the website and use it on social media. We have tried to lift children’s spirits via a Message from Northumbear and we have other resources – both fun and educational.
We wanted Northumberland Day to be about you, as you are its essence. We hope that you will fly your flags, wear red and yellow, decorate your windows and enter our quizzes, our children’s writing competition (via your kids, of course) and support our hashtag #NorthumberlandDay and our thank you message.
We need to make Sunday our focus, showing that the Northumbrian community can stay strong and make Northumberland Day even bigger and better next year. I know this will take courage and innovative thinking and passion and strong communication, but we can do it.
So please use our resources, read children the Message from Northumbear, enter the competitions, share everything, enter the pub quiz on Sunday evening and tackle the quiz that is a homage to our real heroes. Above all, start planning what we can do together next year.
Northumberland probably needs a stronger community now, more than ever before. Let’s start to build this. You can find the resources at www.northumberlandday.co.uk along with our existing and new social media channel links. Let’s made the rest of the UK sit up and take note of us on Sunday, by making a social media noise. Tell everyone that you can and let’s get our virtual party started!
I hope to be able to see many of you soon, but in the meantime please take care and stay safe. Use our special ‘thank you’ logo on Sunday and the hashtag #NorthumberlandDay but, above all, please stay in touch and tell us what you can do for Northumberland Day 2021, when we will all hopefully be out and about again and celebrating as only Northumbrians can.