Community fundraisers were held in Surbiton on Sunday including a skiing event and a folktale reading.
The annual Surbiton Ski Sunday and King’s Soup has retuned after a hiatus from 2017 due to poor weather and Covid-19.
Each year participants strap blocks of ice to their feet and attempt to ski down St Mark’s Hill in Surbiton which was transformed into a linoleum slope from 11:00 to 13:00 on Sunday.
Robin Hutchinson MBE, an organiser of the event, said: “Skiing is primarily perused by the wealthy and what we wanted to do was revolutionise it to allow everybody a chance to do it.
“The scientific principle behind skiing is basically you put wood on your feet and you ski on snow or ice so we thought what happens if you put the ice on your feet, surely you could ski on anything.”
Many competitors wore costumes such as a blow-up rocket ship, however Hutchinson said in previous years a guinea-pig costume had been his favourite sighting.
The ski aspect of the day ended with each team getting into a bathtub on ice blocks and pushed down the slope.
Timings of each competitor’s endeavour on the slope were recorded with the quickest timing given an ice trophy to commemorate the day – at least before the trophy melted.
The event was free to enter although donations to the Mayor of Kingston’s Charitable Trust were encouraged.
The trust supports foundations The Community Brain and Creative Youth, both of which Hutchinson founded and chairs.
The Community Brain’s philosophy is to help people fulfil their full potential by organising events for like-minded people to share ideas and make them a reality.
Hutchinson said: “Everybody is brilliant if they’re given the help and support to be brilliant.”
Similarly, Creative Youth is a foundation that enables young people to get involved in projects and find their passion for the creative arts.
Afterwards, the crowd moved to Claremont Gardens to celebrate a new folktale story called The King’s Soup.
The story highlights the value of community as it explores the issue of greed through a selfish king changing his attitude after trying a leek and potato soup made from a collective of villagers.
People were urged to bring a leek or potato to make the collaborative soup from the story.
A reading was done of the story with a theatrical performance alongside live music.
