The Isle of Wight Community Rail Partnership (CRP) opened its doors at Sandown Railway Station on the 1st day of the Easter holiday on Monday for a widely promoted ‘Dinosaur Day’.
The day was free to families and communities on the Island to take part in a range of activities in the Spring sunshine.
The event was well attended with over 80 families travelling by Island Line to gather at the station with over 100 local residents for the egg hunt, which was ran brilliantly and in partnership with Community Action Isle of Wight Youth workers for the Bay Area. Over 300 ‘Dinosaur Eggs’ were artfully hidden in Jurassic ‘Los Altos Park’ with dinosaur footprints giving hints to the egg’s locations.
In the station’s ‘Gaslight Community Café’, Ali Smith and volunteers made sure children and families enjoyed the colouring competition and cake decorating which came with dinosaur tattoos, face masks, key rings and dinosaur lunch boxes.
On display in the community rooms, Dinosaur Isle Ambassadors brought the museum’s exact replica ‘pop up’ 3D 3.5 meter of the 130 million-year-old ‘Neovenator Salerii’ permanently on display at Dinosaur Isle, and although half the size, it still as impressive as it was fascinating, as were all of the fossils the ambassadors brought with them for people to see and learn about.
Southern Vectis also joined the day providing a free half-hourly service with the Sandhopper bus to take visitors from the station to the town and on to Culver parade where families took advantage of the 10% discount on entry to Dinosaur Isle Museum with a valid Island Line, South Western Railway train ticket.
The Community Rail Partnership, now in its 18th year, continues to deliver projects which benefit communities, passengers and tourists. The CRP works closely with businesses, schools and volunteers delivering a range of projects from the hugely successful ‘back to work program ‘Suit Yourself’ for women run at the station, to ‘Food on The Move’ now in its 3rd year supporting our vulnerable families and elderly in the community.
Bobby Lock, Community Rail Manager said:
“Today was all about families and our community, celebrating our Jurassic history whilst bringing people together for a free day, to entertain everyone at the start of the Easter holidays. We live in financially challenging times, and every little helps, and with this partnership approach to deliver a well organised and free event, we believe a little, was a lot”.
Great job. Great to see a free event for the kids.