Report Page 2

 

On Behalf of our Association I am pleased to report yet another successful year, our visitor numbers have increased to our Museum, the Red Feather Club, an event has been held at the site every month, these events have been either Monthly Open days, Film Shows, General Knowledge Quizzes, 1940s Dances, guided tours & talks all of which have been well attended.

This year we have had many school visits, 200 children from Framlingham primary school attended over 2 days last November, in July a group of Cub Scouts visited the museum and were duly awarded their Aviation patches, earlier this month some 25 pupils attended from Mendham primary school, and next month 65 pupils are visiting from Fressingfield primary school, all pupils have sent letters of Thank You for their visits, so in a year some 400 young people have been educated about the 95th at Horham airfield .

In May local author Robert Radcliffe choose the Red Feather Club to inspire the local schools writing competition, pupils attending were from Wilby, Stradbroke and Laxfield schools, 3 workshops were held at the site, these young people must be complemented for their creative stories which have been compiled into a recent publication, our Association was very proud to take part in this important event, Thank You to Robert Radcliffe, Co-organiser Rosin Wiseman, the Young writers who took part and to Brian and Jenny Chapman for their donation towards the prizes.

The Museum has been completely changed and expanded, our Archivist Ray Howlett has undertaken & supervised this major project, Congratulations to Ray for all his work, new display cases have been either purchased or constructed with all items donated going on display, even more items have been arriving this year, both locally and from the USA, the Movie tone film of the 4th March 1944 mission to Berlin have been purchased, 3 LED televisions have been purchased to show these films, the colour film of Clifford Cole kindly edited by Matthew Kirkum as part of his Duke of Edinburgh award initiative, and the photographs from our ever increasing archives, turntables have also been purchased to show the unique collection of A-2  flying jackets which have been either donated or purchased, some £8,000 has been spent on  the museum since the expansion started in August 2010, I wish to also extend Thanks to Roy Munro, Glenn Miller who have assisted Ray  with this work & other parties  every week and every function to help our Association.

Our Membership has increased again this year, with many new members joining after a visit to the Red Feather Club, the Heritage Association has again this year raised money to erect a memorial, which dedicates the Red Feather Club Museum to the 95th Bomb Group, the memorial brickwork was undertaken by Roy Wilkinson & Barry Ransome who kindly donated all their time and expertise to our Association, the Memorial dedication coincided with Grand Open Day & reunion in May, some 25 visitors attended from the United States, including 3 veterans, Ben Roujansky, Herb Wilcov and Ray Waters, our Association arranged home stays with local families, hotel accommodation, visits to local places of interest, the Heritage Association paid for a fly past of

P-51 Mustang over the airfield, & plans are already afoot for another reunion in 2012.We must Thank the families who welcome our American guests into their homes, without You, we could not give our guests such a warm and friendly visit to the old base in rural Suffolk.

On behalf of our Association I would like to Thank Gerald and Lucy Cooper who have provided the adjacent field to the site, this allows us car parking for the Grand Open Day and for all our events, we could not operate without this much appreciated use of their land