Mandie Sehmbi to quit DCAL.
- 24 October 2008 08:127991Many of you will have seen the big story and picture on Page 3 of the Dover Express( bet you always wanted to be a Page 3 girl mandie!) breaking the news that Mandie is quitting DCAL in the Spring. One or two of us may already have been aware that such a development was likely.
But this begs the question now..
WILL DCAL SURVIVE?
There has been a fairly huge haemorrage of staff since the early days...days full of wild enthusiasm when the new DCAL concept took off brilliantly and eclipsed the previous encumbents in short time. But from those earlier days when there was a full gaggle of team players, the only one left will be Terri Deane( Terrismark). A tall order therefore to carry on.
As Mandie has said and I have seen it myself first hand, or maybe second hand, through the involvement of Saskia W-S. A lot of hardwork goes into it all..a huge number of events have to be attended, with endless trips to these events to organise. Then there are the girls to look after, both their welfare and to make sure all the glamourous dresses are right for the occasion and so on... Then there are other regional carnivals to attend, then there is the homegrown Dover Carnival to organise. It is like riding a never ending threadmill. If indeed you can ride a threadmill
So no wonder people get burnt out.
So will it continue? are the heady days over? will new people come forward to take over?email: dover7@msn.com - 24 October 2008 11:458004Will they stop this 20 min carnival for good. Be Honest Mandie has work very hard to keep this togeather but with little surport other than her army of helpers and a great big vote of thanks for that, but nothing to speek of from the town, local shops could dress up more cars, Local Buisinesses put in more floats after all its there buisness thats in town, are local cadets could get more involved this year not one band from dover,the duke of york school should be asked if they would like to join in.The town council should do more to promote this and get involved. Local schools have some great talent make use of them. Thank you again Mandie for all your hard work. My grandaughter 4years as loved some of these carnivals but moans when its all over.I Hope Its Not All Over.
- 24 October 2008 11:528005Hi Paul, yes it is true that I am leaving DCAL, but certainly not true that DCAL will end.
No-one in life is irreplaceable, and contary to your statement above Terri is not the only surviving committee member. From the original group she is to an extent with Sid as honourary president, but DCAL does have other committee members to.
I am also not "burnt out". I will always have a huge love of carnival, but the time is now right for me to move on. however DCAL will always have my undying support.
There is a huge commitment involved. As I said in my article. "If you think it is one day a year, ya dead wrong."
I have got to be honest and say that I adore carnival and always will, and will still be happy to help out from time to time, but as most of you do not know. For the last year and a half I have suffered with a major problem with my right foot, and it has now come to the point where I am almost certainly going to need surgery to correct it. I have supposed to have been using crutches since June, which I haven't done, and I wouldn't even want to guess how many miles I have walked this year alone just doing carnival routes.
Carnival and everything it entails is HUGE and to be fair there is also only so much critisim from joe public you can take to. Less than 24 hours after this years parade I got a text from a member of the public. There has been other stuff to in the past that has hurt me deeply.
I am not going to lie. I am going to be incredibly sad to leave. The rewards from being with the girls and boys and other courts far outweigh the hard parts, and I have been VERY PRIVILAGED to have been given the opportunity to spend time with these kids. They all know how much I love them, and how much joy they have brought to my life.
DCAL doesn't need to have new people take over, it will survive without me.
Sunday 26th April will be an incredibly emotional night,and one I am not looking forward to.Just thinking about it now makes me well up with tears.
HOWEVER that night is not about me. It is about a great bunch of girls who have clocked up over 41 awards so far this year, and I plan on giving them a stand down which will go down in carnival history.
Every last one of the courts we have had have left their mark etched in my heart, and for that. THE RIDE HAS BEEN WORTH EVERY SECOND. - 24 October 2008 12:398006We must have been posting at around the same time Alan lol.
Just to clarify on the Duke of York school.
They have been asked to take part in the carnival before, but they break up on the day before the carnival, so naturally the band is not available .
local shops and businesses could and should do more, and in the past I have mailed pretty much every business in Dover an entry form, which didn't generate any extra participants.
It takes a bit of "get up and go" to put a float in or walkers, and I guess people don't always want to be bothered to put in a few extra hours to bring an entry to life.
It's a shame really as carnival is a fabulous advertising tool, for very little outlay on a businesses part, but at the end of the day we cannot force people to take part.