Scarecrow Safari in Sale, Cheshire

Scarecrow Safari in Sale, Cheshire

21 Sep 2024

Well, this week has been unusual since we were contacted by the Act 4 Africa charity

To take part in a local business initiative around Sale called the Scarecrow Safari!

Act4Africa Charity

The charity aims to target women who have no income, no role in their decision-making, and are victims of gender-based violence, called the Heal programme which focuses on educating, empowering and enabling women and girls to take control of their lives.

They are given basic financial literacy, enterprise training and vocational skills, together with life coaching and an understanding of their sexual and reproductive health rights.

They can then go on to set up small enterprises and begin to access their income. They can also invest in their families and have a say in their future.

They also have initiatives such as “Goats for Girls”, which provides disadvantaged and vulnerable out-of-school girls with livestock and animal husbandry training.

They then go on the goat-breeding programme and develop their livelihood which combining their ownership and skills, gives them status in their communities.

After reading this, we couldn’t help but get involved with their Local Initiative in Sale, which was also linked to raising the profile of Sale and District Lions. Both charities are working together for their communities.

If you’d like to find out more about Act4Africa, please click here.

Sale and District Lions

Are also jointly involved in the initiative to promote local causes, but this time in Sale.

Helen Allen has been particularly involved in this campaign, so I am sure she would be delighted to answer any questions you may have about the club or how you could help the residents of Sale, as they have an ethos of serving the local community in the United Kingdom.

They also do a lot of work for charity internationally. If you would like to find out more about the good works of Sale and District Lions, then you can read more about them by clicking here.

If you would like to meet and have a chat with the Sale group in person, you could even join them on the 1st Monday of the month at 8 pm, which is held at Sale Golf Club, Golf Road, Sale, Cheshire M33 2XU.

Enter a Scarecrow

After a quick conversation with Sarah who works for Act4Africa, little did I know that I would be up at 11 pm thinking, “What can we use for a Scarecrow’s face?”

Luckily we have recently moved, so I had quite a few random items in the basement! Would you believe that our Scarecrow is made from purple disco pants stuffed with bubble wrap and her checked arms are perfectly filled with clear plastic tennis ball containers??? Her torso is made from an old lampshade (which has the perfect-sized hole to fit our yard brush up to make her spine and one leg!!

We decided early on, don’t ask me why, that she would be a girl, so we made her own perfect-sized bikini top!

Her head is made from a football and covered with a school T-shirt (don’t tell my daughter). Her wig was from the dressing-up box, and her hat is my husband’s (don’t tell him either!!)

Mandi didn’t like her hair looking straggly, so she put it up in two nice bunches. Karen sorted her shoulders out so they were nice and square, and Ish propped her up while we put her together!

She’s even wearing her own best purple tunic, so she is truly part of the team!

Of course, we couldn’t let our own Scarecrow lady be without the magnificent smile that Sale Dental Spa is known for, and we hope you will agree that she looks amazing!!

We decided we would like her to have a trip outside for all to see, and as we went outside, we were blessed with a handy metal sign stand that was placed on the corner, possibly for future road works!

While we were there, we met some interesting people from Sale, including Sir Alan (who also works for the ambulance service), who happily posed with his newfound “friend”.

Here he is outside the dental practice with Karen Dungey, our Head Dental Nurse here at Sale Dental Spa and our new friend Alan Whittaker who is an ambulance man. He was passing by as he had been out for coffee in Sale. He stopped to have a chat and find out all about what we were doing on the corner of Washway Road and Roebuck Lane on a fine sunny Thursday morning in Sale. We made a friend and took this picture, which we promised to post and tag on Facebook so that he could show it to his friends.

We also met a host of fine, upstanding members of the community who were very interested in learning about our Scarecrow and who we promised to post a picture as long as we tagged them.

Here’s Helen Doogue, a member of the Moorlands Junior School Parents Teacher Association on Temple Road in Sale. She, too, stopped to have a chat after picking up and collecting her order from M&S, Sale on the same road, and then she walked home as it was a lovely warm morning. We told her all about us being part of the Sale Scarecrow Safari, and she stopped to admire our Scarecrow’s smile!

Our Scarecrow also got a beep from passers-by on busy Washway Road.

We’ve also heard that Dave the Scarecrow in Sale Moor Village is single, so we were thinking of pairing them up, as I do love setting singletons up!

Scarecrow Safari

If you are taking part in the scarecrow safari, maps are to be available at Sale Library in Sale Town Centre or The LifeCentre (235 Washway Road, Sale, M33 4PB) or downloads from www.act4africa.org/scarecrowsafari/ so that you can your family can trek around Sale, spot some scarecrows and take some selfies which they should tag @ScarecrowSafari and @Act4Africa by 4th September 2019 to be in with a chance of winning £50.

What’s her Name?

We couldn’t let our beautiful Scarecrow lady go without a name, too, so if you’d like to know what her name is, you will have to pop into the practice at 77 Washway Road or look out for her on @ScarecrowSafari and @SaleDental and @SaleDentalSpa on Instagram and Facebook to find out!!

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