Summer Fun Day 2023

Mollie Brown

Roll up, roll up...

...to the last open bar before the summer ends.

It's been a long time coming but the Summer Fun Day has arrived. Having booked out a section of Harlequin's club in Belfast, we brought along an extravaganza of activities: face painters, fairground games, lawn games, a rodeo bull, an assault course, a giant inflatable Minions slide, and Sean's gazebo.

With a fun packed day of music, sports, BBQ, quizzing, (and did I mention the open bar?) we had a great turn out on a surprisingly sunny afternoon.

Family Fun

For this year's summer event, we wanted something a little closer to home that everyone could bring family and friends along to.

We accommodated for all ages, but that doesn't mean the kid friendly stuff is JUST for kids. You can't keep us from a good time, and sometimes a good time is a Minions slide.

Charity Raffle

Our charity raffle also took place on the day. The raffle involved over £1000 worth of prizes and was a great success, with all the money going towards our ongoing fundraising for NI Hospice.

A lot of hard work went into this raffle so it was lovely to see it turn out well on the day.

Thank you to everyone that took part and thank you to all the generous sponsors below for the prizes that were donated!

Taking the bull by the horns

A real highlight was the rodeo bull!

A variety of techniques were seen, but all were bested in the end.

There's nothing more I could write about this that would be better than the photos.

Yee-haw.

Sports Day!

Of course, all of this is merely side dressing to the real reason we were all there.

None of this matters - the bull doesn't matter, the joy of children having their face painted doesn't matter, Jason's angelic singing doesn't matter. None of it.

I guess the charity stuff matters a bit (we love you NI Hospice), but the real thing that matters is the CUP.

The Data Intellect Cup is awarded to a team every year at our Summer get-together. That team must succeed in a gauntlet of tasks where their teamwork, leadership, and physical prowess will be put to the test.

This year that gauntlet was a childhood sports day.

And the winner is...

After a grueling hour of egg and spoon racing, sack racing, three legged racing, racing through an obstacle course, relay racing, you get the idea racing, the red team came out on top.

Soak the Management

We managed to avoid a downpour, but that doesn’t mean no one got drenched! Another hotly anticipated part of the day was that very special part where we threw wet sponges at the management. All in aid of a good cause of course, with every splash supporting NI Hospice. For £1 per sponge, anyone and everyone was invited to throw sponges at our esteemed leaders, with the person taking the most sponges getting a bottle of wine in consolation.

Was there too much vinegar behind some of those throwing arms? Judge for yourself.