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Love Lowndes Art Competition – Winners announced

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We are thrilled to announce the winners of the Love Lowndes children’s art competition.

As part of the Valentine’s day ‘Show your LOVE for Lowndes Park’ all-schools Mufti Day the children were encouraged to enter an art competition. They were asked to draw a picture on the theme of “Lowndes Park – the green heart of Chesham”.

We were absolutely bowled over by the number and quality of the entries. Children aged 4 to 11 drew amazing pictures that captured their love of play, their joy of green spaces and their sheer excitement about having a new playground. All the judges commented on how impressed they were and humbled they felt by the care and thought the children had put in. It was a wonderful reminder of why, and for whom, we’re doing this.

Keep reading to find out who the winners are!

Huge thanks to the following schools who raised an amazing £1,255 on the mufti day and/or entered the art competition:

  • Chartridge Combined School
  • Newtown School
  • Waterside Primary Academy
  • Ivingswood Academy
  • Elmtree School (and Nursery)
  • Brushwood Junior School
  • Hawridge and Cholesbury CE School
  • The Beacon School
  • Chesham Preparatory School
  • Thomas Harding Junior School

The Prizes:

WINNERS:
At the entrance to our new playground (due to be built by the end of March 2025), we will have a ‘heroes’ board celebrating all the key sponsors, businesses and groups that have donated to make the new park a reality. On that board we have set aside two spaces for the winning artwork from our two age groups. It will be up in the park for at least 10 years!

RUNNERS UP:
The runners up will be offered the chance to help build the new Bug Hotel in the playground. The build will happen on Sunday 23rd March led by local children’s environmental group Nature Club.

All the winners and runners up will be invited to a VIP play party on the 23rd March where they will be the first children to play in the new playground!

The winners

Age 4-7 category

WINNER

Kaith, Aged 7, Brushwood Junior School

Runners up:

Tia, Aged 5, Chesham Preparatory School

Ayvah, Aged 4, Chesham Preparatory School

Cherry, Aged 6, Hawridge & Cholesbury CE School

 

Age 8-11 Category

WINNER

Matilda, Aged 10, Chartridge Combined School

 

Runners up:

Aanah, Aged 9, Ivingswood Academy

Annabelle, Aged 11, Hawridge & Cholesbury CE School

Vaia, Aged 8, Chesham Preparatory School

 

We cannot overstate how impressed we all were with the entries. Love Lowndes is working on a way to create an exhibition in Chesham to share the amazing work with the community.

All the Ts&Cs in case you’re interested!

The rules:

  • Each entry must be by one child only.
  • It must be drawn on the A4 paper template supplied as the winning images will be square.
  • The child’s name, age and school must be included on the template.
  • Drawings and paintings only – no collage or photographs.
  • The Love Lowndes team will collect all pictures to be submitted at the end of the school day on 14/02/25.
  • The Love Lowndes team will choose two winners:
    • Age 4-7 category
    • Age 8-11s category
  • We will contact the winners to gain approval of the parents for inclusion on the board on Monday 17th February.
  • We will publicly announce the winners by 1st March 2025.
  • The artwork and interpretation board will be unveiled at the new playground grand opening on the 29th March 2025. Winners will be invited to attend.

 

The judging process:

  • All entries were collated by Claire Wyatt (Chair of Love Lowndes) after the deadline of 14/02/2025.
  • Claire sorted the entries into age groupings and delivered them to Louise Hayday (CEO of Chesham Town Council).
  • Louise ‘blind’ judged each age group (only looking at drawings and not names/schools) to create a long-list for each age category.
  • The long-list entries were given back to Claire to redact names and schools details, photograph them and send to a small group from the Love Lowndes committee.
  • This small group then voted for their favourite in each age category and the image with the most votes became the finalist in each age category.
  • Claire then sent the finalists to the full Love Lowndes WhatsApp committee for final judging.
  • The final was judged in the agreed 4-7 age group and the 8-11 age group.
  • There were clear winners in both age groups. Claire Wyatt did not vote at any stage as she was the only one who may have seen names/schools.

 

Love Lowndes: the heroes that made it happen!

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From volunteers to huge grant funders…from local businesses to the children of Chesham – these are the Love Lowndes heroes that made our new 5-11s playground happen!

There’s no doubt that Love Lowndes has been an amazing community success story. Together, we’ve raised £220,000 for Chesham’s new 5-11s playground in Lowndes Park.

Love Lowndes was created by a handful of frustrated residents who came together determined to make improvements to Lowndes Park. So much has been achieved in two short years.

We’ve created the Love Lowndes brand, raised awareness about the dire play facilities, successfully lobbied Chesham Town Council to create a Masterplan for the park, undertaken consultations, engaged and involved the diverse Chesham community, organised lots of events, attended countless fundraisers and written multiple successful grant applications. And the result?

A beautiful new inclusive, accessible, challenging and inspiring destination playground in the green heart of Chesham!

Along the way, the core Love Lowndes team has been supported by various people, organisations and businesses that have turned our dream into a reality.
Thanks and recognition must go to right places. So, below is a list of the heroes of the Love Lowndes story:

The dream team!

The Love Lowndes committee

The core team of Kate Hutchinson, Isabelle Hatfield, Anna Elliott and Claire Wyatt have been the driving force behind Love Lowndes for over two years. They’ve built the brand, attended every meeting, masterminded and delivered every event and strategy, managed communications and social media, written all the funding applications (in collaboration with CTC) and countless other tasks that have created the new playground. It’s been a labour of love and taken so many hours of work. This core team was supported by a wider group of amazing volunteers who’ve provided advice and practical support along the way. Special thanks to Wilford Augustus, Rachael Matthews, Sam Wignall and Sophie Baron.

Chesham Town Council

Love Lowndes has worked alongside CTC from the beginning. They are the owners of Lowndes Park and responsible for its upkeep and development. CTC have provided £35,500 of our budget and supported us in so many ways. They’ve helped with events, administrative support and writing the grant applications. Special mention to Kathryn Graves and Louise Hayday, without whom this would never have happened.

Friends of Lowndes Park

FoLP is a Chesham based voluntary group that created the Lowndes Park Masterplan. This ‘vision’ document has been the template Love Lowndes used as a starting point for the new 5-11s playground. It will be used for all future improvements to the park. FoLP also coordinated the very first meeting of the core team that went on to became Love Lowndes – the fundraising arm of FoLP. They have also provided all the banking services throughout the project.

Our Volunteers

So many people, businesses and organisations have given voluntary support to Love Lowndes. Here they are – in no particular order!

Our fundraisers

Lots of local organisation and residents offered support by running events and finding ingenious ways to raise money for us. Special thanks must go to:

Our Phase 1 Sponsors and Donors

Love Lowndes was the volunteer group responsible for fundraising for the new playground. The project was started with £35,000 from Chesham Town Council. This came from something called CIL money.  The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is a charge which can be levied by local authorities on new developments in their area. So, when housing or development is done, a levy is charged to the building company and that money must be spent on local infrastructure or improvements.

Love Lowndes successfully applied for a further £500 grant from Chesham Town Council later in the project too.

Over a two-year period, the Love Lowndes volunteers raised an astonishing £49,500! They achieved this by staging events, working with local schools, co-ordinating fundraisers and engaging the local community. They also sourced local corporate sponsorship.

Love Lowndes worked in collaboration with Chesham Town Council to write applications to the grant bodies and secured a further £125,000 for the project (see the pink section in the image below).

Buckinghamshire Council gave £10,000 a succesful application to the Chesham and Villages Community Board.

Phase 1 of our playground renovation and improvement is the 5-11s playground. It was made possible thanks to all the amazing people who donated to our Crowdfunder and because of the incredible support from following organisations:

And we are indebted to our amazing local sponsors:

Platinum:

Gold:

Silver:

The following businesses/groups also donated:

Plus, of course, everyone who donated to the Crowdfunder or who signed up to Easy Fundraising.

I hope you agree this list of the volunteers, sponsors, fundraisers, funders and all-round heroes responsible for making Love Lowndes a success is heart-warming to read.

But, there’s more!

Yep, that’s right. Even though the Love Lowndes team would like nothing more than to down-tools and have a well-deserved rest, we’re hungry for more!

Phase 2 of the playground renovation is already underway.

We’re fundraising to replace and renew the 0-4s playground (inside the hedge), replace the zipwire and add some natural scramble play equipment at the top of the park.

As ever, you can donate via the Crowdfunder and get involved by emailing lovelowndes@gmail.com. They really need more volunteers!!

 

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