Date: 18th July 2012

Summer Fun Day 2012

Durham Climbing Centre held it’s 4th Annual Summer Fun Day on Sunday 15th July! The day was a fantastic success, well attended by lots of families both those new to the centre and a good helping of regulars. The sun shone and there was great atmosphere in the wall as the instructors helped those who were new to the sport get to grips with bouldering and find their way to the top of the wall.

Alongside the climbing activities on offer, there were a host of other activities spread around the centre and in the car park. Children handled exotic creepy crawlies and plenty conquered their fears and held snakes, cockroaches and fast scurrying hamsters when Scales and Tails Animal Encounters visited the centre. Outside the kids bounced on the castle provided by Auckland Castles, decorated fairy cakes in the Mini Mixers Cupcake Decorating Workshops, got creative on the Creation Station craft stand and posed with the Diggerland JCB and it’s friendly fat faced mascot Dotty!

Meanwhile inside the centre, Libby from LT Entertainments painted countless faces and created some fantastic balloon models at the children’s requests! The NHS Team set up their stall complete with screens for health checks and a table full of faux food representing recommended portion sizes! Many of the parents and grand parents took advantage of the free health checks on offer!

After all the activities, hungry visitors queued up for the barbequed food which proved very popular with our burgers and sausages flying off the grill and Panini’s as usual going down a treat. It seems everyone loves flame-grilled food! A special thanks goes to Mary and Ian who helped out with the cooking.

The garden was a suntrap and the select few who found their way there swung on the seat and soaked up the sun.

Many families and children stayed for the full day to see the raffle drawn just after 4pm. Some great days out were on offer including a day at Diggerland, Killhope Lead Mine, Crook Hall and Gardens and even a race day at Sedgefield Race Course among other days out and Durham Climbing Centre Hoodies and T Shirts! Some prizes are still unclaimed so contact the centre if you have a winning ticket!

Thanks to all who came down and made the event such a success, we hope to see some of you again in the future getting strong and cranking hard!! (this sport is not just for children!)

Don’t forget our Summer Promotion starts this Friday 20th July when everyone can climb for just £5 until 3rd September. With rock climbing headed for the 2012 Olympics now is the time to get yourself and your children involved in this fantastic sport! We look forward to seeing you all at the centre soon!

Hayley McKenna Manager