Easter ‘’EGGstravaganza’’ at Crossbrook Family Centre
IFST East Herts and Broxbourne came together for their annual Easter ‘’EGGstravaganza’’ at Crossbrook Family Centre on April the 9th.
"On the 10th of April, the St Albans & Dacorum IFST Team hosted an Easter Funday for the families that we support, looking to provide the children with an entertaining and engaging Spring-themed occasion. Lasting between 11am and 1pm, our wonderful workers helped to run a variety of enthralling activities including an Easter Egg hunt, a sweet tombola, messy play, colouring and crafts, playdough figure creation, lunch building, sporting activities and more. This gave the opportunity for the children to run free and enjoy themselves while also having plenty of sweets to take home at the end of the day. The carers themselves also got stuck in, making the event truly one for families to enjoy together. The turnout was fantastic, and due to how smooth the event ran, it led to a pleasant and enjoyable time for all involved."
Families supported by IFST came along and joined in the fun. Various rooms within the family centre were transformed to ensure the families had lots of fun activities to keep the busy for the 2-hour session. Rooms included –
- Arts and Crafts room with face painting, colouring in, messy gluing and sticking activities and a chalk table where children could use their imagination on a large rolls of paper.
- Games room with giant connect four, pool table, Lego and tabletop games which included some very intense games of guess who and snakes and ladders!! Other activities included boules and target shooting.
- Roleplay room which offered small world toys, playhouse with imaginary food and cutlery, large and small vehicles, and car mats as well as a cozy area for the smaller children to play with puzzles, sensory toys, and activities.
- And most importantly ….. the snack and Egg room which had a wide variation of appetizing snacks, drinks and Easer eggs for the children to choose from when they finished their egg hunt.
At the end of the event, all children were given a lucky bag to take home which included, bubbles, bouncy balls, pen, pads and stickers.
Donations of food and chocolate eggs came from our community partners at Tesco Brookfield and Ware as well as Bishops Stortford foodbank.
Katie Smith (Family Intervention worker) shared ‘it was great to see the young people encourage each other in the games room. They were seen to explain the rules to those who were not sure and empower them with praise. There were lots of happy faces and positive conversations which is always nice to see’.
Sue Illott (Senior family intervention worker) shared ‘’ it was a great example of team collaboration and working well together. Everyone pulled together and were naturally mindful of the general diverse needs of the families we support. The adults seemed happy and comfortable to chat to all staff members, even if they were not their allocated workers’.
Feedback from families and children was also positive.
‘’My son absolutely loved the event. He enjoyed playing and enjoyed the freedom of picking what he wanted to do. I also found the event relaxing as my son could go off with his family worker and I did not feel I had to follow him around the whole time’’.
‘’I thought the event was amazing. I liked that the children could do the egg hunt at different times so even families arriving later then the start time could still join in. All of my children had a blast! They enjoyed all the activities and were happy with the goodies they came away with. I could not fault this event, it was brilliant! Thank you to everyone who made it possible’’.
W (child) ‘it was sooo much fun. I liked the big digger that I could ride on and got to play with a new friend. I really liked my chocolate egg, and I was even allowed to take one home for my sister who didn’t come. I was 100/10’