Remember, remember it’s the 6th of November – tomorrow (Saturday 6th) is when you’ll be able to see the annual Fakenham Fireworks Display at Fakenham racecourse, courtesy of Fakenham Chamber of Trade & Commerce.

Gates are open at 5pm and the display starts at 6.30. Price is £15 per car (max 5 persons) on the door. There’s food and fairground attractions, with North Norfolk Radio helping the entertainment along. This year, they’re supporting Help For Heroes and other local charities.

It’s usually pretty spectacular – enjoy the evening!

I attended a Kick Start Fakenham meeting last night – the first one I’ve been to for ages. The meetings are much more formal than they used to be, with a definite agenda and structure to them. Although the informal nature of earlier meetings was friendly and comfortable, I think it has improved with this change – they covered a lot of issues in an hour and a half!

There’s a fair bit going on at Kick Start. Carnival plans, fundraising ideas, festivals, commemorative areas being planned for the community and a lot more besides. They’re actively representing themselves on other town agencies too – the Area Partnership, Town Council and Chamber of Trade will all have Kick Start representatives from now on. It’s all coming together nicely.

Hopefully, I’ll be helping them to get a website up and running soon – they’ll then be branching out from their Facebook page so that information about what they’re doing for the town is more widely available. That’s why I was there last night.

Online information: That’s another area which will hopefully become more ‘joined up’ in Fakenham in the near future too. Watch this space!

I was contacted by local poet and campaigner Vince Laws who’s organising this upcoming event …

Candlelit Vigil Against Hate Crime. Held on Lifeboat Plain in Sheringham on Saturday 23 October, from 7.30pm, with 2 minutes silence at 8pm, to coincide with vigils in Toronto, London, Brighton and Norwich.  Guest speaker in Sheringham is The Chief Executive of North Norfolk District Council, Philip Burton.

“No one should have to suffer violence or abuse for being themselves.”

Bring a jam jar and a candle and show your support (meet in Oddfellows Hall if wet)

So that you can get some background info, the main London event in Trafalgar Square is detailed here on the Gay News website. The International Day against Hate Crime (Facebook page here) was founded by Mark Healey in 2009 in the lead up to the 10th Anniversary of the nail bomb attacks aimed at London’s black, Bangladeshi and gay communities.

They’ve been busy down at the community centre, refurbishing the bar area. Wow. What an improvement! It’s now a tastefully decorated and welcoming place – the lighting is bright but in a way that doesn’t look unfriendly or garish. The colours are muted and clean looking. It’s so much better than before – the committee and all those involved have reason to be proud of their efforts.

There are other parts of the building which need refurb work and repairs – and that is being scheduled as we speak. In the meantime, a temporary entrance will make sure the newly-finished bar area remains open for business. It’s a great start, as these photos from their open evening tonight will hopefully show..

I see the church tower is having a few problems. The Parish Church is a prominent landmark in Fakenham and a major contributor to life in the town. So… I think it deserves a bit of support by attending the ‘Headline News in Flowers’ Flower Festival in October and donating a few bob. Details are in this Fakenham & Wells Times article…

Just in case you weren’t aware – If you were planning an event in the Fakenham Community Centre, you’d better know… 

Fakenham has started to address some of its issues now, I think. People are beginning to focus on improving our town and the first signs of coordination between the local organisations involved is becoming apparent.

Kick Start Fakenham have made their presence felt with an impressive Fakenham Fair, with the aid of the Fakenham Area Partnership. They’ve proven that they mean business and can organise an event on that scale - which bodes well for an even bigger community event or maybe even a full-scale carnival next year.

But what next? The town needs to progress further and we need to consider what direction to take.  Comments on an earlier post by a visitor to our town highlighted some of the negative aspects he’d seen. The many replies to his comments seemed to culminate in the opinion that although it was easy to spot and point out problems it was difficult to find a way to address them.

So do you have any ideas? What would you like to see the various organisations in Fakenham concentrate their efforts on? Are they doing anything wrong or completely missing a trick somewhere?  There’s the Town Council, The Area Partnership, The Parish Church, the Kick Start group and the Chamber of Trade – all trying to do stuff for the town we love. Give them some feedback!

I got this notice through from Ray Cossey and I think it’s worth posting on…

NORFOLK & WAVENEY
PROSTATE CANCER SUPPORT GROUP
Reg. Charity No: 1108384 www.prostatesupport.org.uk

FREE P.S..A. BLOOD TESTS FOR MEN OVER 45
FAKENHAM COMMUNITY CENTRE
23rd. September
We’ll be funding up to 250 free tests that evening (from 7pm) ….so here’s your chance to check on the health of your prostate …so don’t miss it!
YOU MUST PRE-REGISTER FOR A TEST AND SHOULD APPLY IMMEDIATELY by sending an A5 sized
stamped & self-addressed envelope to:-
N&WPCS,
3 Skedge Way, Blofield
Corner, Norwich, NR13 4RY
or you can e-mail to:-
nwpcsg@hotmail.co.uk (typing “PSA test application” in the Subject line)

This will be the third Norfolk testing session we have arranged over the past 18 months and, of the over 430 men tested, we know of at least 12 men we have given blood test to who have since been diagnosed with prostate cancer and are have undergone, or are now receiving, treatment for their condition. Men with a family history of prostate cancer or breast cancer are more likely to contract this cancer, which claims the lives of some 11,000 men annually in the UK.

Today’s Fakenham Fair was well attended and the event was great fun. Lots of stalls, bouncy castles, local organisations and demonstrations – and the weather was very kind too!

Fantastic work by Kick Start and the Fakenham Area Partnership – well done, guys. Here’s to a successful full-blown Fakenham Carnival in 2011!!!

What are you doing tomorrow? Did you know that it’s the Fakenham Fair? Well, it is. From 2pm – 6pm in Millennium Park.

“Rides, inflatables, stalls with toys, crafts, games, food, classic cars, bows & arrows, you can even come and build a wall! “

The running order looks like this…

• 2.00 Football
• 3.00 Punch & Judy
• 3.30 Tae Kwon Do Display
• 3.50 Basketball Display 
• 4.00 1st Acadamy of Dance Performance
• 4.20 Magic Show
• 4.45 Fakenham Bowmen Display

… but may be subject to change.  Then in the evening, there’s the disco…

8-11pm Family Disco, Community Centre, tickets £2.50 on the door, under 12′s FREE