Denver Day

April 20th 2002

FoJD Members

Click on the pictures to see a larger version...

Brownie Peace Cloth Panel

We are proud to report the success of our latest Denver Day, held on Saturday 20th April 2002. Members from all over the UK travelled to Dorridge, near Solihull, West Midlands, for a day of fun, friendship, music and chat, not to mention plenty of eating!

Read how our newest member enjoyed the day.

Debbie with the
Project Boards

The idea of our day was to create a Friends Around the Campfire feel where members felt relaxed with plenty of time to chat, to a gentle background of JD music. When friends don't see each other for six months there is a lot of catching up to do! We also made time for them to view the beautiful Peace Cloth panel created by Ruth's Brownies, the Project Boards with updates on our Charities, and the splendid photo albums brought along by members to share their memories of John and also their Aspen trips.

Members collect their
(consolation) prizes

That said, we still managed to pack plenty of activities into the day! They included a game designed to ensure everyone was introduced at the beginning (suggested by Ruth Oddie), creating a special DD Peace Panel from our signatures (again Ruth!), and an excellent JD quiz, which was the brainchild of John and Sandy Whale. And in between we were entertained by a selection of our talented musical members.

Sylvia

Angela

Neil

Paul

Tony

Neil McDougall made a very welcome return to our stage, and delighted us with his excellent guitar and vocal skills. We were also very pleased to welcome back Angela Sims who played the violin so beautifully and so poignantly for us. We hope they will both be at our future days to enrich our events. Tony Kavanagh and Sylvia Ashton, who are now valued veterans of Denver Days, played with their usual panache and style, and were much appreciated. The surprise act of the day was Paul Gilbert, who has only just started learning to play the guitar, and astonished us with his rendition of Country Roads. Well done Paul, we know it's not easy to get up and do that!

A poster from the
movie 'Oh, God!'

We rounded the day off with our raffle and auction - which contained some very rare JD items donated by our extremely generous members, to the delight of our audience! And we raised a tidy sum yet again which will be on its way to various charities shortly.

Back at Anita's

And the fun didn't stop there. After joining in our circle to sing Wings That Fly Us Home we packed up and moved the party to Anita and David's for the evening! Everyone was invited back and as many as possible made it - we all squeezed in for more food, drink and plenty of singalongs!!

A full review of DD, plus reviews by other members will be in our summer newsletter.

Debbie Austin

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