Hatch End resident Shilpi Goel, along with her friends and neighbours, Bindiya Kejdiwal and Avisha Shah, started a community project to raise money for YoungMinds, a children’s mental health charity.
What started as a small fund-raising effort by Shilpi, who was initially raising money with a running challenge, snowballed into a large Harrow-based community event that brought together hundreds of people in the neighbourhood.
Her idea was to focus on families and create awareness about mental health – as she was concerned that young people and children have gotten increasingly more isolated after the pandemic.
To make it fun for all ages, she with the help of friends and family, put together a summer evening fete with bouncy slides, doughnuts and pizza stalls and the highlight being an open-air cinema. Many children from Grimsdyke School volunteered to run charity stalls that sold everything from plants to hand-made bookmarks and bracelets.
Hundreds of parents and children came along to enjoy the games and food and stayed on well past 10 pm enjoying the movie with friends.
Cllr. Susan Hall and Cllr. Matthew Goodwin-Freeman supported the event that was held on a beautiful summer evening in Shaftesbury park.
Wonderful afternoon at the #HatchEnd Community "Fair" event, raising money for @YoungMindsUK #charity, #Ukraine & everyone enjoying the 🌞#ThankYou to the organisers, local businesses for the food & the many school children for their incredible arts & craft stalls! 🎨 pic.twitter.com/oiRMr7KXem
— Cllr. Matthew Goodwin-Freeman 🇺🇦🇬🇧 (@MGoodwinFreeman) May 14, 2022
The Hatch End Tennis club, 1st Hatch End Scout, Hatch End Association, Sai School of Harrow got involved along with the Grimsdyke School and Harrow Council to help make it a successful event. Local residents are looking forward to seeing it as an annual thing and Cllr. Matthew Goodwin-Freeman promised to provide help and support for the next one.
Along with creating an experience that was enjoyed by all, together the community raised over £2700 for YoungMinds.
If you want to donate, please use the link here: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/goel-shilpi
The YoungMinds charity provides young people with tools to look after their mental health. They work to empower parents and adults who work with young people and hope that together, they can create a world where no young person feels alone with their mental health.
