Hull Friends of the Earth go on Parade

The Lord Mayor’s Parade set off from Walton Street on the journey to East Park (half an hour late waiting for one float that went straight to East Park We fastened huge posters to the sides, showing Hull FoE volunteers Arthur, David and Sharon working the shredder and collecting bags of waste.
Instead of balloons, we used lots of streamers made by Carol Tharratt from recycled carrier bags.
The back of the float was a marvellous sight: an enormous water vole’s head peeping out of reeds and grasses gathered by Alan Tharratt. An explanatory poster spelled out the message in case our water vole was not immediately identifiable.
It’s a long way to walk from Walton Street to East Park and on a hot day it is even more of a challenge. All credit to Alan Tharratt, Hilary Byers, David Longthorn and the three boys who walked the distance, collecting money along the way. They raised more than £20 for Hull Friends of the Earth, plus a contribution to the Lord Mayor’s charities.

Our hedgehog was very popular with children in the crowd. He is certainly the biggest hedgehog we’ve ever seen. He was discovered two days before the Parade, sitting on the grass verge. Nobody round about wanted to claim him, so we’ve adopted him.

Chrys Bavey drove the Hull FoE milk float on the Parade.
We were there and our jolly milkfloat made it all the way to East Park, though not without a few anxious moments for our driver Chris. Thanks to Tim who begged the paint and painted the float, Alan and Chris who decorated it, Dave who manages to coax it into life when its being tempramental, and Aidan, Paul and Ashley who helped us collect money on the way.