After the hard work the exhibition arrived and went without too many glitches and mainly smiles and giggles. Who did steal one of the balloons that we planned to place on a winning branch table? Well it made me laugh! There were some stunning branch project tables and fabulous competition entries. The demonstrators and hands on sessions were all a success and well attended, thank you to everyone who ran these sessions. The Mayor, who opened the exhibition, was blown away by the skills on display and was thrilled to have been there, he was also delighted to take a corsage home for his daughter. Members had made many corsages and the one selected was by Carol Bunch from Maidstone, the remainder were sold for region funds. One of Maggie Doulton's Cygnets from Folkestone has had their exhibition piece taken home by someone, we hope this was a mistake and would ask everyone to double check to see if they accidentally took an extra piece by mistake. Likewise one lady lost a red coat so if you found an extra one please let us know.

Both our President Elaine McGregor and our Chairperson Linda Thacker were at the show all day and presented the prizes at the end of the day. Branch project awards were presented by Linda and the individual competition entry awards were presented by Elaine. The Valerie Hedgethorne Cup for best exhibit in show was presented by Valerie.

Brighton Racecourse is already booked for Saturday 16^th May 2009 for our 6^th exhibition and traders have already rebooked. I can't wait to see the competition pieces as the ones this year were stunning. We have the top winning awards with pictures now on the website and I am working to get the rest on as quickly as I can. If you have any requests for 2009 please let us know, we won't promise anything but we will consider all of your suggestions. For example we are looking at making a clearer area for the awards next time around.

Elaine and I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who attended, participated and helped to make our Exhibition back in May such a success. We had so many unpaid helpers on the day that they deserve a special thank you for giving up their time whether it was all day or an hour, we couldn't have done it without you. To all of the new BSG members who joined at the exhibition, a huge welcome.

Warm Wishes
Elaine Haynes and Carolyn Harvey