FAITH IN THE COMMUNITY: Our boxes project reflects local community
by Helen Dyer, churchwarden, St Barnabas Church, Swanmore
OUR church, St Barnabas Church in Swanmore, celebrated its 180th anniversary a month ago.
We decided that we would mark this milestone, as the traditional 175th anniversary actually happened during the Covid pandemic.
It also coincided with a need to fundraise for important repairs and improvements to the church and Paterson Centre buildings – effectively our church hall. So we launched our ‘Out of the Box’ project with a Harvest bring-and-share lunch earlier in the autumn.
The challenge was to create 180 decorated boxes that would come together as a single montage. This allowed all ages, groups, and individuals to take part, giving the fundraising appeal both a sense of community and a way of celebrating our identity in 2025.
Swanmore Pre-School, Primary School and College, all took it on as a class project, creating around 55 boxes. They also came in to see the final exhibition, which was good fun.
Our parent and toddler group Cygnets did the 20 ‘Swimming Swan’ boxes. Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Beavers, Cubs and Scouts also got stuck in, with around 30 boxes – including lots of campfires!
Some of the most unique creations were from the community, congregation and church teams –Brandon Joyce’s amazing ‘Bell Ringers Tower’ box, Swanmore Wind Band’s box that plays music and the box created by the church’s tech team – they are usually behind the scenes but where would we be without them?
The project will be on display in the link space between the church and Paterson Centre during January. Do pop in and take a look, until 5pm any day.
It was fantastic how everyone came together to embrace this project, and as the wall of boxes grew there was a real sense of the project being about the bigger picture.
We all enjoyed seeing the individuality of each box as it arrived – and got know each other a little better too. The fundraising appeal has gone really well, so thank you to everyone that made a box, sponsored a box or donated to the overall appeal.
If anyone would like to contribute, please go to: https://stbarnabas.org.uk/donations/ for more information.
ST BARNABAS CHURCH, Church Road, Swanmore, SO32 2PA.