BLESSING THE MUMS – AND REACHING THE DADS

Serving up a good time

  • Event organisation can be a nightmare, but a group from St Paul’s Church, Ealing, has hit on a winning formula. RICHARD COLTHURST reports

It all started when a group of church “stalwarts” wanted to arrange an event for mums on Mother’s Day. Six mums sat at a kitchen table and had a great time while five dads cooked a meal. The next year saw 30 signing up for the ‘Mummas’ event, 12 months on there were 70, while 2005 brought in 95 for the Italian-themed evening.

Why?

To bless mums – especially single mums; allow dads to show their appreciation; draw in dads who don’t have anything to do with Church but their wives come; attract mums on the fringe of Church life; and make a mark in the community.

When?

You could do it any time, but the night before Mother’s Day has worked well for us. We did it initially as a mum’s “work Christmas do” after my wife complained that I got loads of “dos” at Christmas and she didn’t get any for her job. But it is such a busy time of year we found it was difficult for people to find the time to help or attend. We decided to run it around the time of Mother’s Day this year but the type of event could be run at any time for whatever “target” audience you may have.

How much?

We set our ticket prices at £10 per head.

How? 

We ask dads to buy a ticket for their wives and for a single mum, and to bring a bottle. We encourage mums to invite other mums.

What happens?

We buy all the food, cook it, serve it, and clear up afterwards. The venue, in our case church, is decorated specially. Chauffeurs are provided at the start and finish for those that want one. We ask someone to say a few words of welcome at the start, and give an introduction to the church at the end, but very little else. It’s important to try and avoid making it too “in your face”. All guests are given a present of Divine Chocolate before they go home.

Divine Chocolate gave us one chocolate bar per guest. In return for their help we agreed to promote the event with the local press and ended up with a photo in the local free newspaper, and an article talking about what we were doing and promoting fair trade goods. They’re keen to do more of the same thing with other churches around the country.

Top Tips

1 Get a good team together. We reckon there are about six key roles:

a Head Chef

b Creative. This year’s Italian theme included a fountain, and washing strung across the hall like a Neapolitan street!

c Finance and Logistics

d Team Leader

e Sales and Marketing

f General co-ordinator

2 Plan a menu that is impressive, economical and, above all, practical

3 Have a good time plan for the evening

4 Invest effort and some money in how the venue and tables appear

5 Make sure all single mums are invited. It’s worth putting together a list in advance and double-checking. They don’t mind being asked twice but do mind not being asked at all. Don’t overlook elderly mums

6 Menus on every table are a good idea

7 Try to get as many dads as possible to help on the night. We had a great team of waiters …

8 It’s worth advertising at least a month in advance

9 If a mum says she’s coming and the dad doesn’t come to church, make the effort to ring and ask him to help.

10 Plan the preparation

11 Use a good butcher for your meat. They will do a lot of preparation for you, such as skinning and boning

12 Don’t forget the vegetarians. We bought pre-prepared vegetarian food from a delicatessen, it’s good quality and saves a lot of hassle doing a separate dish

13 Get most of your food delivered by internet shopping on the morning of the event

14 Sell tickets through a few dads but have some clear instructions. We say: only part with a ticket in exchange for money.

15 Think – what can you invite them to next?

The event has worked because the mums have really latched on to it and want to be invited, so the dads have to get stuck in! The mums also ask other mums, people outside the church, and it has proved an excellent starting point for an outsider. There’s no limit on the age of mums, so some couples end up inviting their parents.

Dads have also found themselves working as a team and building relationships, and it’s certainly the best way I’ve found to get to know other dads inside – and outside – the church.

At our church’s annual meeting in April, vicar Mark Melluish said that one mum had come to church for the first time – purely because she came to the Mummas event two months ago – and had given her life to Christ. That’s got to be the best reason for doing an event like this!

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