The Great Big Sleepover

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Saturday the 21st May saw the Jim Cronin Memorial Fund host the first ever sleepover at Monkey World!  This event was sold out within a fortnight of going on sale and 83 adoptive parents joined us for this very exclusive event.

Watching our incredible primates bed down for the night was a wonderful experience, as well as the opportunity to wander the park after hours when it was closed to the public.

After the barbeque, the evening's entertainment kicked off with songs, stories and poems by the campfire, followed by a night under the stars.  Despite the wind and the rain in the middle of the night, our fellow campers were in good spirits in the morning and were up bright and early on Sunday ready to enjoy a full English breakfast prior to watching the primates as they woke up to begin their day.

A great time was had by all.  Thank you to everyone who participated in this event, it was lovely to meet you all.
 

Testimonials - Sleepover May 2011

The following are some the kind letters and emails we recieved from the campers who took part!:

"Firstly, Karen and I would like to pass on our sincere thanks to ALL staff that  made themselves available throughout this event.  We would particularly like to thank Shelley and Mike for their efforts in making the event fun and rewarding.
The opportunity to enjoy the company of such dedicated people (all the primate care staff) and, to have almost exclusive access to the park was very much appreciated."
R Prior

"Andrew and I would just like to thank Shelley, Mike, Jeremy and all the care staff for a lovely time at the big sleepover what a great experience, and the icing on the cake was we got to meet Alison thank you x"
M Martin

"Back in Holland: Thank you staff of MW for a unique experience! Special thanks to Shelley & Mike xx You all took such good care of us, just like you do of the primates :)  I had a fantastic 3 days on my own first & then 2 gorgeous days with you all.  Will never forget seein "my" Dutch girls going to sleep & next morning standing together with Alison seeing them play.  I was (still am) moved by all the experiences.  Never mind the cold: i found the Sleepover heart-warming."
P Postma

"Hi. I had a brilliant time at the Sleepover.  Very well organised and it was a magical experience being in the Park before and afer hours.  A big thank you to everyone involved in making it such a special time :-)  The experience will stay with me a long time."
M Cresswell

"Thank you Shelley and Mike for an amazing sleepover!  Looking forward to the next one. x  Great food too :-)"
J Aundrews

"We had a fantastic time, loved every minute.  Especially when i got my clicker training from Mike :-) hahaha."
D Read

"It was an amazing night one I shall never forget! A huge thank you to everyone at Monkey World for making it special.  A special thank you to Shelley for the idea and another to Mike and Jeremy for entertaining us!! Xx"
L Riley

"Shelley, your a Star for thinking up this great event, Mum and I had a blast.  We were still laughing through the wind and rain!  Cannot thank you, Mike, Jeremy and all the Primate Staff enough. xx"
J Froud

"Thanks to everyone at Monkey World for such a fantastic time! It was an amazing experience and it was lovely to see the primates bedding down and getting up in the morning.  i didn't get much sleep as I thought our tent was going to take off during the night, but that was part of the fun!"
L Martin

"It was a great weekend - thank you to everyone involved in putting the event together."
E Marfell

"What an amazing weekend.  Looking forward to the next one!!  Thanks to all involved for making it such a special time."
S Lloyd

"It was a fantastic expeerience - thanks to everyone who worked so hard - a thrill to see the primates (and some British wildlife) outside normal hours - seeing Bart get into 'bed' with Susie & Eddi get thoroughly checked over - proud our tent survived the wind & rain - it was really well organised & we were well fed & entertained."
J Horsman

"To all the staff and primates at Monkey World, A great big thank you. It was really nice to walk round the park out of the normal hours, and all the primates were great! It was such a pleasure meeting all the Monkey World staff, who did such a fantastic job. I'm sure everybody appreciated their efforts. The event was so well organised and went without a hitch, despite the weather! Also, the barbecue, and the breakfast the next day was really good, too.

We would really like to say a big thank you to Shelley especially, for having such a great idea in the first place. Hopefully you will be repeating this great idea again sometime soon. We look forward to seeing you again soon."
H.C Allcock & A Johnston

"Dear Shelley, Mike, Jeremy and all the primate care staff - thank you so much for a wonderful  weekend. My mum and I had a great time on the big sleepover. All your hard work and organisation ensured a great time was had by all. With our best wishes and regards to all."
J & P Froud

"Dear Shelley - I wanted to write and say how much we enjoyed the 'Great Big Sleepover' recently. It was a fantastic opportunity to see the animals at times you would not normally be able to see them. We really enjoyed all of it, the bonfire, the poems, the music and the marvellous food. It was a really special event. We spent a long time in the park; it was also nice to meet other Monkey World supporters."
C Plett
 

"Just a huge thank you to Shelley and everyone involved in last weekends sleepover.  The event was one that we will remember for a very long time and we will definitely be doing it again.  It felt a real privilege to walk around the park when nobody else was around.  The tea, barbeque and breakfast were all great and we really did not want to leave on Sunday."

D & H Richards

"Just to thank you for the brilliant time we had on Saturday!  It was wonderful having the whole park to ourselves.  And Mike should have his own TV show ... And what a blessing the weather stayed fine on the Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, despite the wind and rain during Saturday night.  Thank you once again and very best wishes - do keep up the fantastic work! Best wishes."
S Ruth & C Buckley

"Many thanks from us both for arranging the 'sleepover'.  We found it fascinating to see how the different species approached the end of the day.

Our thanks to all who gave their time and energy to keep us fed, watered, interested, informed, entertained ad warm (well most of the time).  Jeremy and his wife for singing and playing to us.  Special thanks to Mike Colbourne for reading to us so beautifully.

Yours, still going round in a whirl with grins from ear to ear,"
T & S Wilson
 

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