Teresa here. How wet, chilly and miserable was Preston today. We had to crank up the music to lift our spirits and with the morning ironing and a bit of dancing we kept warm. We had a lovely lady help us today, Liz, a volunteer from the Harris Museum and we had a laugh outside the shop handing out leaflets. At one point we were descended upon by endless young people, too eager by far! I have to admit (Liz and Dom thought so to) that it was a lucky escape when they moved on, typical messy teenagers and it took us a while to tidy up after them. Thank you Liz for your efforts today. One lady who came into the shop around the same time, commented on how it smelt nice of soap powder – which is lovely to hear and means we’ve finally beaten the horrible, stale cafe smell of when we first moved in. I’m not surprised though as we’re constantly washing all the clothes which are worn, as we feel its only fair to people willing to get dressed up to have fresh clothes. Apparently, this adds to their confidence, or so I was told today by one of our young ladies who participated. Just as we were beginning to give up hope of getting any walkers Aimi Rushworth and Robyn Taylor, both 17, came in out of the blue and they were so enthusiastic about dressing up. They’re coming back with several friends on Tuesday of next week, hopefully. Tomorrow should bring the lovely family who bought children’s cloths especially for their two boys and we’re looking forward to seeing them all in the shop. Dom’s off to Sheffield University tomorrow and Sunday to begin a new course, so I have my lovely sister-in-law, Julie coming to the St John’s Centre to keep me company. Julie’s a teacher and has just finished for the summer – she was looking forward to a bit of peace and a lie in but its a ‘Red’ day for her instead and oh what a treat she’s in for!
No sooner had we switched on the lights and opened the door, two ladies eagerly marched into our shop. ‘We’ve come to dress in red’, said the first. They introduced themselves as Kirsty and Helen. We had spoken to them on Monday about our project and at the time they had their dog with them. They said they’d come back and were true to their word. They chose their outfits, got changed, and at exactly 10:30am they set off on the walk. When seated for their coffee, a group of men began singing a very out of tune ‘Lady in Red’. The ladies seemed quite flattered. It was a great start to the day!!
The afternoon was equally successful as three young ladies, Lorraine, Jenna, and Jade volunteered to do the walk. They set off and looked a vision in red. All heads turned in confused amazement as they walked along. They sat down for their drink and as it started to rain quite heavily, they decided to make a hasty retreat back into the St. John’s Centre. The rain didn’t dampen their enthusiasm however, as they giddily recalled the experience as they said goodbye.
So 5 people to add to the list of participants and after another busy day with lots of interest, we are both extremely positive that we will be gaining many more!
Today started of very well indeed as we received our two first donations of red clothing. Both items were jackets and both were donated by woman. Thank you very much, and we hope our collection continues to grow!
We had lots of interest all through the day, and lots of people eager to be involved. Many are coming back over the next week to take part. We also had our youngest participant at 10 months old take part today. Baby Dylan and his mum Lucy looked lovely as they set off out of the St. Johns centre all in red, including the pushchair with its own red scarf. They made their merry way through the market and across town, Dylan leaning forward, smiling and waving at the slightly bemused spectators. He thoroughly enjoyed his experience, as did Lucy. Lucy was very surprised about how wearing the red clothes gave her an instant confidence boost and how she enjoyed the attention much more than she’d anticipated.
Well, we’ve finally settled down in our shop in St John’s Centre. Last week was extremely busy, cleaning, ironing and hanging our lovely red clothes. We did think that it might prove slightly intimidating being in the shop window amongst our red things, but actually it was quite exciting and we have definitely taken on a new persona when dressed in red and feel like we are actually on stage acting, especially when we have our music playing. When we thought about how our first week would go, we imagined that the only people who dressed in red would be our friends or family. In the event all those who where supposed to come along had valid excuses why they couldn’t dress up? The brilliant thing was we managed to inspire 13 complete strangers to engage with the red project and become our first walkers. On Saturday a lovely bloke called Danny Johnson, from Liverpool, who willingly dressed in red and was the first man to participate with his girlfriend Danni. They were both great company and have promised to come back with Ben and more of their friends from Liverpool. We hope so. Today, Monday, we have had lots of people in the shop chatting and asking about the project but never quite managed to get a willing participant. Not to worry though as at this moment the washing machine’s busy dying children’s clothes red, as a lovely family have bought clothes especially for their two gorgeous boys to wear on Saturday next, so they will be our first whole family and we can’t wait.
We started off the day by cleaning the windows. The pound shop next door but one said that we could borrow their step ladders for the duration of our project. Thank you pound shop!
We are open to the public now and ready to go. We began by testing the circular route that we decided on. En route, each participant will sit down to take tea or coffee at ‘Go Fresh’, a juice/coffee kiosk situated on the square in front of the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, where they will be photographed by volunteers. Many thanks to Kathryn Wheatly for photographing us today. On re-entering the shop they will fill in a short questionnaire to record their experience, and a short video recording will be made. Any comments gathered along the way, we intend to write on our blackboards in the shop.
We have our first participants ready to go and are excited to see what tomorrow brings!
