Equals

This year the Equals' Ryde Friendship Group joined forces with a group from the Ryde Children's Society for the Ryde Carnival.

Our entries were based around the story of "The Hungry Catapillar". A few of us from each group took a six week course at the Ryde Carnival Centre. Hannah Ray designed and helped us to make the prototype costumes so that we could go back to the groups and make the rest of costumes.

Both groups worked hard for the last seven weeks making huge butterfly wings and caterpillar costumes. The wings were made from willow withies bent into shape, covered with fabric and decorated.  The caterpillar bodies were made with fabric, wire and pipe lagging. Backpacks were made from Corex.

On the day we painted every face to match the costumes. Everyone had a good time taking part, even though the wind made it quite difficult to control our large wings. A big thank you on behalf of Equals and The Childrens Society go to

• Hannah Ray.
• The Carnival Learning Centre.
• Ryde Childrens Society particularly Debs and the gang.
• Amanda for costume making.
• The Sherbourne centre for allowing us space to make and store our costumes.
• All the women and children who took part.

Samantha Gilliam-Scott Friendship Group Co-ordinator.