It seems so very long ago that we all became part of this new ‘lockdown’ society. Many unknowns about what happens next surround us, especially when working on projects such as ours.
In some ways Dartmouth Mayflower 400 have been fortunate in that we are able to continue work on many of our projects, whilst fully social distanced and observing all Government guidelines. Team members are working in their own homes: stitching pennants, making rope, making barrels, as well as holding online meetings to continue all contingency planning.
Our Steering Group meets regularly, with the help of ‘Zoom’, to discuss the latest reports and announced guidelines. We also closely follow our ‘festival’ partners as event planning continues in Dartmouth, sadly with a few of our partners having had to cancel or reformat events as a result of the pandemic situation. We are very sensitive to the impact all this has on the local community, our local businesses and not least our generous sponsors and donors.
We do not currently have plans to cancel our Pageant and Mayflower Week, but this will all be subject to any imposed regulations for the period from 30th August 2020 and the following week. There may, however, be some changes to the format so that we can still deliver this element of the commemorations. The Maritime Team, supported by the Steering Group, will be monitoring guidance with a view to announcing further plans by the end of June 2020.
One new achievement: our Children’s book launched this week. ‘Stories of the Mayflower’ is now on sale HERE with the proceeds going to a newly set up Dartmouth Mayflower Education Fund. This fund has been created to give back to our community with a scheme to support local students.
