Shining a lantern on u3a within the community

Ann from Wells u3a, pictured here (right) with Chair Sue, talks about their u3a's involvement in a community lantern parade

An annual lantern parade organised by Wells Project Factory CIC, a “not for profit” organisation, held their amazing pageant in October, to encourage community interaction in and around Wells.

Wells u3a heard about the idea and decided to support the community project by creating a lantern to highlight our u3a to the uninitiated. We gathered a small group of our members who attended several sessions learning how to make these fabulous lanterns, from willow and tissue paper!

The theme was the natural world and saving the environment, and we chose to make a dolphin, thinking bending of the willow would be easier for this shape. We joined a group of people to learn, and were amazed to see the incredible shapes created, such as an octopus, dragon fly, stags head and many more. Having made our outline shape with the willow we then placed fairy lights inside, and covered it with special tissue paper soaked with watered down PVA glue! This was then left to dry out and after several days we added the eyes and painted “u3a” logo either side of the body.

On the evening of Saturday 22 October everyone met in Wells Cathedral under Luke Jerram’s Gaia, the giant globe of earth taken from space. There were more than 100 lanterns of all shapes and sizes made by a wide variety of residents of Wells, many by young children. We started the parade around the Cathedral, lead by an amazing drum band, due to a passing storm outside, which eventually cleared up allowing the parade to continue through the market place and into the grounds of the Bishop’s Palace. The parade finished under the shelter of a large tree as the rain decided to return.

We felt really pleased to be part of the community, which also gave us the chance to promote our active u3a at the same time.