I can’t believe this is the FOURTH issue of our very own East Marsh Newspaper, The Proud East Marshian. Our arts gang have once again done us proud in this beautifully produced and engaging interstellar issue.

Have a look for yourself: https://www.sunandmoonfestival.org/proudeastmarshian

This edition has an ‘out of this world’ theme as the Sun & Moon Festival launched our project for children and families – Let’s Go To Space in July. The magazine gives an insight into the project and all the people who put it together and takes you to some fabulous resources which can be enjoyed for free.

East Marsh Windows – Our World, Our Environment – Get Involved

This July edition also launches our summer arts project for families – East Marsh Windows. There are full details in the magazine regarding the project but I’ve copied them below for ease. Please share this project as widely as you can! We will have a maximum of 30 boxes available and it would be wonderful if we could have 30 families taking part. Please help us to get his lovely project out there:

The summer holidays are now looming and we know it can sometimes be hard to keep children occupied and doing fun things.

Here at the Sun and Moon Festival, we want to help you have a creative summer, especially as we still face some lockdown restrictions.

We invite you to get creative with your front window and create a beautiful display of your own design on the theme of Our World, Our Environment.

We are inviting families to take part in this project. Here’s a step by step guide to the project:

• Apply for a gift box from the Sun and Moon Festival. Either: Email msjosiemoon@gmail.com between July 10th and July 20th to apply. You must be resident in postcode area DN32 in order to qualify.
• OR send us a private message to our Facebook page, again between July 10th –July 20th https://www.facebook.com/sunmoonfestgy/
• In your request tell us why you want to take part in the project – for example ‘I want to take part in this project because I enjoy using art and craft to make my house look nice.’
• If you are successful in your application, a box will be delivered to your house containing an exciting mix of art and craft materials, suggestion sheets, templates and instructions to inspire you. You can create any design you like but we would like you to display our logo (which will be in the box) and a piece of bunting – fabric and ribbon will be provided. This is FREE.
• Over the course of the summer, you will have a safe and socially distanced interview and photo shoot of your window with members of our team. We will use the photos for our website and project, while making sure your privacy is protected.
• The best window will receive a special prize – to be confirmed – and there will be some runner-up prizes as well.

If you fancy getting some inspiration, take a look at this board on Pinterest that Josie has created for you to look at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/msjosiemoon/art-and-craft-windows/

Issue 5 of The Proud East Marshian will focus on the environment. It would be great if you could send in photographs and short blurbs about your gardens – we know there are some little gems of gardens here on the East Marsh. We would like to receive any stories and photographs that are about the environment here in the East Marsh. These can be emailed directly to Carolyn Doyley carolyndoyley@googlemail.com Please send by July 15th.

…the East Marsh, where you’ll meet some of the finest people in the country battling some of its greatest odds.

Do you remember talk of a ‘Blue Budget’ and ‘levelling up’ in Grimsby – here Ros Wynne-Jones writes about the East Marsh experience and the hopes of our Proud East Marshians – but was it really only March this year? How the world has been changed since then – anyway, I thought I’d post this regardless as a reminder of how the world once was, and of happier times, too, as Ros’ article was occasioned by the happenstance of a 3-day visit from our warm, generous and knowledgeble friends at Voice4Deptford and a Tortoise Media Thinkin (How can we fix British Politics? That question just got bigger!).  But we will repeat both of these things when all this is behind us and we will keep battling on (thanks for a great article, Ros).

Here’s the online version with a shabby headline, no doubt from a downtrodden sub-editor… https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/budget-hopes-downtrodden-town-shabby-21684774

The wonderful people at the New Internationalist Co-Operative are making the magazine free to read for everyone for one calendar month – starting today, 6 May.

One of East Marsh United’s members is a co-owner in the magazine and wants to share its powerful, international stories exploring how to build a better world so that everyone can have access to high-quality journalism during this pandemic.

The link below gives you 30 days free online access.
https://nin.tl/nireadingrooms

Happy reading!