Surprise cheque.

Trustees Trevor Gunton and David Butterworth fight over a cheque
from Jacqui Clarke.

The Friends of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve try to take part in as many local events as possible in an attempt to strengthen our support in the community. We believe that the Reserve really is an important feature of the village, making it a more attractive place to live and we want people to appreciate that.

So every year The Friends have a stand at Pax-Fest, Diddington Fete and a dozen other events in the local calendar; and then there's the Little Paxton Scarecrow Festival.

The Rangers always make a scarecrow or two, although we are running out of old uniforms to make them from, so we'll have to have a different theme next time. This year our Wildlife Trust Education Officer, Debbie Mckenzie, raised the stakes by putting out a scarecrow that was much better than ours, but neither of us came near the standard set by some of the households in the village.

The Scarecrow Festival is mostly organised to be fun and to build a bit of community spirit, but it also raises money for local charities and this year we were delighted to receive a surprise cheque from the committee for £200.

Ray Matthews, who is Chairman of the Friends, suggested that we should use the donation towards the cost of putting a new floor in the Hayden Hide, which we duly did. The work was carried out by the rangers and our midweek volunteers.

The cheque was presented by Jacqui Clarke, who is chairman of the Scarecrow Festival Committee.