childrens parties

Hosting a Children's Party

It may seem like a simple question: Do you host children's parties on Saturday afternoons? The straightforward answer is yes, we can and do. However, there's much more involved. Someone needs to open the venue, and a person has to lock up afterward, and we need to show the individual booking the party how to complete the reservation and make payment. Additionally, we may need to set up tables, ensure the venue is clean, and handle cleanup afterward. Our unpaid volunteers are extremely stretched; we have been working tirelessly at the hub for months, prior to our taking over management from the council on October 1, 2024, since then its been literally - countless hours of community volunteer work for our small but growing group of volunteers.

Initially, we accepted bookings for these parties as a source of income, but we now need to reassess this, as it adds a lot of extra work that we really don’t need right now. Our bookings coordinator has built collaborations with other venue operators. If possible, we prefer to suggest that people host parties at venues better suited for such events. However, if they can’t find an alternative or believe our halls to be more appropriate, we will ensure that our community has this service available to them.

Recently, we had a very stressed mother inquire about hosting her 5-year-old’s birthday party on a Saturday afternoon. She was extremely pleasant, and we agreed to take the booking. We had several phone calls with her to discuss our venue and equipment, and we held further meetings—time we willingly dedicated to a nice family in the local community. 

When the day of the party arrived, we went in early to ensure the place was clean, checking that the toilet rolls, soap dispensers, and overall bathroom cleanliness were all in order. However, we couldn’t get the intruder alarm to turn off! We had been operating the venue for over nine months, and this alarm had functioned correctly the entire time. It was unexpected, to say the least. Fortunately, our bookings coordinator had been gathering quotes for security upgrades and maintenance contracts. She contacted one of the companies we were in discussions with; her assertive approach got a prompt response. The technician said he would arrive within an hour. He showed up quickly and fixed the issue at no charge—what a hero!

We had other tasks to manage that day as well, including dealing with a massive honey bee hive rescue. We were truly delighted with the outcome of that rescue (there’s another blog post on it), but the bees had left a terrible mess in the room we had to clear them from. While we were cleaning up this mess, things took another turn; the water stopped working! Sinks for handwashing and toilet flushing are essential. We quickly checked with one of our neighbors and discovered that a water main had burst in the area. We explained the situation to the party organizers and suggested they go to the supermarket for bottled water, and we placed extra hand sanitizers in the toilets.

Despite the challenges, the event ended successfully. The organizers helped us put away the tables and chairs and vacuum the area in preparation for the next day’s groups. It was just another busy day at the hub for our unpaid volunteers, but a local family left delighted with the community spirit and the venue.

, this is what community spirit is we are all one family U is at the heart of our HUB💓