Thousands visit Towneley Park for uniformed services day

Thousands of people visited Burnley’s Towneley Park on Saturday 22nd June, as the eagerly anticipated Uniformed Services Family Fun Day returned with an action packed day full of activities for all the family.

The event, which was attended by approximately 4,500 people, was officially opened by the Mayor of Burnley, Coun Shah Hussain and Andrew Powell, CEO of event organisers Healthier Heroes CIC, with a raising of the flag ceremony and speeches to the onlooking crowds.

Print sponsors of the Family Fun Day, Pendle Hill Properties, ran an extremely popular giveaway of Hershey bars and toy parachutists to commemorate the Candy Bomber, Col. Gail Seymour Halvorsen, an American pilot who gained fame for dropping 23 tons of candy to German children during the Berlin airlift of 1948 by tying a handkerchief to the candy bar and dropping it out of his plane.

The Lancashire estate agent welcomed queues of visitors to their stand, which also featured a WWII jeep and a special open top gold Coronation bus, which provided the perfect base for children to fly their toy parachutists from.

With demand so high for the Hershey bars, Pendle Hill Properties surpassed their initial giveaway total of 250 chocolate bars and instead handed out over 500 to Under 12s attending the event.

The giveaway was part of an exciting day of activities including an army assault course, food stalls, military vehicle displays, fairground rides, facepainting activities, museum collections, charity stalls, the Royal Air Force, recruitment stalls, live performances and much more.

Nicola Wilkinson, sales and rental negotiator at Pendle Hill Properties, said: “We have had an absolutely fantastic day, what a great event!

“The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves, taking selfies, getting their treats and checking out our special WWII jeep. It was also great to chat to so many people looking to buy, sell or let their properties with us in and around Burnley.”

Andrew Powell, CEO and co-founder of Healthier Heroes CIC, said: “I would just like to say a huge thank you to everyone who attended our Family Fun Day. The field was full with so many stands and stalls including local businesses, military charities, local charities and many more, it has just been absolutely incredible.

“It was great to have Pendle Hill Properties here supporting us again, with their double decker bus and Hershey bar and toy parachute giveaway, which went down an absolute storm.”

Further information about Pendle Hill Properties can be seen on their website: www.pendlehillproperties.co.uk

Healthier Heroes CIC work hard to help people overcome social isolation, homelessness and improve mental health and wellbeing in the Veteran community. You can learn more about them and their work in the community, here: https://healthierheroescic.co.uk/