PAGEANT - "Education is the future"
2019 Summer Shipment
Preliminaries
The long summer break is always a convenient time for schools to carry out refurbishments. two Primary schools in Crawley had decided to replace a lot of their classroom furniture: - They were Hilltop Primary School and The Oaks Primary School. These two schools, together with Broadfield Primary Academy and The Bewbush Academy are part of the The Kemnal Academies Trust (TKAT), one of the largest Multi-Academy Trusts in the South of England with over 40 Primary and Secondary Academies. They had generously offered Pageant the classroom furniture which was being replaced. Mark Clawson, Premises Manager for all four schools, was the mastermind behind the logistics of getting the donated items ready for packing into Pageant's container.
It was decided that the most suitable school for loading the container was the Oaks. Pageant had already collected some books from Hilltop earlier in the summer. Now some PE equipment and classroom tables and chairs had to be moved from Hilltop to the Oaks. The schools use a small company called Moova to do their removal work. Mark arranged for them to take the items from Hilltop to the Oaks, and as a goodwill gesture to help Gambian schools, Moova made no charge for this.
exercise mats with stand
square exercise tables
round exercise tables
wooden benches
classroom tables
labelling furniture & equipment at The Oaks
Moova loading the van at Hilltop
loading the van
furniture arriving at The Oaks
Loading Day - 10 August 2019
Moova kindly came, again without any charge, to move the materials at Old School to The Oaks before the container arrived. Liam, the driver, arrived with his little daughter, and five of us managed to load the van with books, microscopes, various packages, a large pine table and several other items before leaving Old School at 8.45am.
Moova at Old School
The container arrived at The Oaks just before 9.30 am and the rain had stopped at 9.20!!
container arriving at the Oaks
Our team swung into action - Nick, the head of Moova, who is also the premises manager at The Oaks, described it as a 'well-oiled machine'!! Ben and Craig, ably assisted by Rhys, were at the 'sharp end' and did a miraculous job of fitting a quart into a pint pot.
container dropped to ground
starting to load
The rest of the team (Brian, Tina, Carole, Frances, Dave, Maxine, Nick and Pippa) fetched and carried items to order -'small chairs'...'tables'...'large chairs'...'more small chairs',.. and so on and decided at various intervals that we would or would not get it all in!!
loading
Ben, Rhys and Craig, master loaders
nearly done
In the end we DID get it all in, with space to spare for a few pallets that were available at the school - these will be very much welcomed by the Gambian recipients.
driver closing door and applying seal
container lifted back onto trailer
We managed the loading in an hour and three quarters - our fastest ever - and we were really thankful that we had done so as the heavens opened and it bucketed down with rain just after 11.15!! Our reward for loading in under two hours is £95 off the bill - hurray!!
Many thanks to all concerned - we are really so grateful for your help.