In 2022-23 year Business Whangaparaoa was granted some funds from Auckland Council which they combined with Destination Orewa. The purpose of this funding was to develop "placemaking" activities on the Hibiscus Coast. We opted to purchase some "giant" games to use at events.
Destination Orewa already hold a number of annual events and markets where the games could be used but Business Whangaparaoa had no such events. Hence we commissioned Chris from AllBrand to help us develop a new concept.
The idea of the Giant Family Fun Days are so we can drive the local community into the new "districts" along the Peninsula we had defined through our Town Centre Meet Ups earlier in the year (2023).
With the new branding and some funding from Hibiscus and Bays Local Board we opted to start with 3 "district" Family Fun Days. Alongside a small committee from 2 of the 3 districts (Karepiro and Manly Village) and combining the third event with the Vine Church "Carols on the Canal" Christmas event at Gulf Harbour we held these for the first time in 2023 and plan for these to become annual events and later expand also to other "districts".
Giant Family Fun Day Procedures
Event set up
- Make sure you get any local businesses on board, especially those you will need permission from and that will be directly affected by the activity.
- Decide on dates and confirm this suits all parties
- Book in any machines/activities you are going to run, eg book in games from Orewa storage, candyfloss machine, bouncy castle, sausage sizzle, anything the local businesses would like to do. Party Kingdom have bouncy castles for hire and also have the candyfloss machine.
- Seek a fundraising group as volunteers to set up, monitor and pack down giant games (you will need approx 5-6 volunteers for games management) and they should also run the candyfloss machine and sausage sizzle (both raising funds for themselves), eg Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, a student saving for a trip, any other local charitable groups seeking fundraising opportunities.
- Create your Health and Safety Plan - here is a Health and Safety Plan template from 2023 you can use and update if required.
- Family Fun Day preparation, sorting games,setting up trailer, visiting Karepiro businesses in event vicinity, meeting with Karepiro sub-committee, finalising sponsors, organising and pick up and drop off of popcorn machine, candyfloss, bouncy castle, sausage sizzle, etc. Creation of Health and Safety Plan and Operational management, organising signs and posters, set up and running the event Initial preparation work for Manly Village event and talking to Manly Village businesses as above Meeting with Vine Church re combining Gulf Harbour events and sorting initial site map
- Seek Sponsors for the event to help cover costs of machine hire, event management, etc (2023 we got 3 x sponsors @ $250 one from each of the areas where we were holding an event, however we allowed their banners at all events and promoted them all overall) - in 2023 we also had a small Local Board community grant we used to develop the branding and help run the events
- Get updated date stickers for your peg and cable tie road signs
- Print some posters and get out into the community
- Set up your events in your online calendar and social media events
- Start your promotion from about 6 weeks prior to the first event
- See if the local Manly Fire Brigade is available to attend the event, this is both for Health and Safety but also the kids love the fire truck!
- If you are going to give away lollies get this sorted (sometimes Destination Orewa may have some you can have otherwise source or get sponsored and buy from Gilmours)
- Do a short notice to deliver to all local businesses in the area advising them of the event and inviting them, if they want to be part of it to promote their business, to let you know and deliver these.
The week before
- Go out and put up your Giant Family Fun Day signs
- Make sure you are organised for pick up or drop off of any machines you've hired
- Ensure your volunteers are all set
- Organise how you will get the games to the venue
The day of the event
- Get there early
- Organise set up
- Ensure you have an information table which should have a fire extinguisher, BW information
- Pack down
- Take down roadside pegs/cable tie signs to ensure these aren't cut down and thrown away as you will put the next date sticker over the top and reuse for your next event. (if you can't do this the same day just make sure you do it fairly promptly after the event)
After the event
- Return games and any other machinery as required
- Prepare your event report for the BW Executive meeting
- Organise any reimbursements required.
- Call in and thank any local businesses directly affected by the event (eg affected their parking/access/or other)
Again you should find all templates and past examples in the Google Drive folder and or in Canva.
Note in 2023:
- We had additional sausage sizzle at Karepiro only run by Grandparents Raising Grandchildren (they couldn't provide enough volunteers to support the games)
- We ran candyfloss and popcorn machines however the popcorn machine had to come from Warkworth, this ended up being more of a nuisance than it's value - I would suggest 2024 you leave it and instead have a sausage sizzle
- Candyfloss machine just needs one of Jess's kids to give a little training to the volunteers the first time they use it (it is quite simple to operate)
- Bouncy castle at Manly Village we put down the side by YOU Travel however there would have been enough room to put this in the upper car park with the games
- Gulf Harbour we also had Hungerball and the sausage sizzle is organised by the Vine Church. They also paid for the bouncy castles at this event which was good!
Useful Contacts
- Jess at Party Kingdom - 022-352-7759 - info@partykingdom.co.nz
- Vine Church, Philip Corser - philipcorser54@gmail.com - Philip is the key person who organises the Carols on the Canal event
- Possible contact if you're looking for a Santa - Robert (Bob) Richmond - rimbrichmond@xtra.co.nz
- Hungerball - Andu Lordache - andu@hungerball.com
- Sponsors we had for 2023 - $250 as event sponsors - YOU Travel Manly, Pandora's Closet, Richard Bruce Fitness. Smaller sponsors who had acknowledgement and small signs by candyfloss - Storage 4 You, Liquorland Manly (unable to have signs for liquorland however we placed the candyfloss outside their door and used their power and ensured we got their logo in a lot of the coverage photos)
