m SECTION – Strap here i
x , i n c r Events 4-PAGE EVENTS SPECIAL SECTION – Autumn term success stories
bit like an Indian version of a ceilidh. We charged £5 a ticket and held two dance sessions, with 150 tickets available for each session to avoid getting too crowded. It was important to us that the
‘Everyone danced the day away at our Garba’
Neesha Patel is chair of the Friends of Pinner Wood School, Pinner, Middlesex (630 pupils)
The school hall was fi lled with little girls twirling around in colourful skirts, dancing to the beat of the tabla (a pair of hand drums), while a singer performed traditional Sanskrit songs accompanied by a harmonium. Our fi rst Garba – a circle dance
originating in the Indian state of Gujarat – was off to a fl ying start. Children, parents and even grandparents were all dancing around the room together – something you don’t see at the average school disco. As a Hindu, I had grown up going
to Garba every year in the run-up to Diwali, and I wanted my kids to have the experience of doing that
too. Luckily, one of the other mums in my son’s class is a Bollywood dance teacher, and when I approached her with the idea, she immediately agreed to help.
She not only found a live band to play for us but offered to run short workshops before each dance session to show
families what to do. We have a high proportion of
Indian children at our school, so a lot of them were familiar with Garba anyway, but it’s a very
simple dance – a
event was inclusive, so we didn’t make it in any way religious. Instead of dancing around the traditional deity, we just danced around a table decorated with paper fl owers. We also made it clear in our publicity that the event was open to the entire school community and that no previous experience was required. As well as the dancing, we held an ‘Indian Bazaar’ in our downstairs hall, with clothes, food and baked treats for sale. Rather than provide food ourselves, we invited local food vendors to come in return for 20% of their takings, and we sold tables to stall holders for £25 each. We’ve found that’s a good approach because we struggle to get
volunteers to run stalls otherwise. We also ran some free arts and
crafts activities for the kids,
including some inspired by Rangoli, an Indian art form that uses
coloured powder. The art materials cost less than £50, and we paid £450 to hire the band. Altogether we raised about £2,000.
The feedback was fantastic, and it was such a good way to bring everyone together. We’re already looking forward to the next one.
School Fundraising AUTUMN 2025 31
AS TOLD TO NUALA CALVI
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