Not that it’s new to you. Taking part in Heritage Open Days (HODs), you spent many hours, if not weeks preparing for your event and then welcoming visitors, answering questions, guiding tours or running activities. All this on top of what you normally do. You may have experienced the transformative power of doing something that engages people. Despite the exhaustion afterwards, you probably felt satisfied, encouraged and confident that, working together, it’s possible to make a difference. It’s a feeling that can be addictive. That’s why after 16 years, Heritage Open Days is still going strong. A record 4,463 entries were registered and a total of 578,445 voluntary hours spent on making 2010 the biggest and best event yet.
Heritage Open Days is a lesson in civic pride and participation or, the “Big Society” in action if you like. It’s therefore not surprising that both Lloyd Grossman, Chairman of the Heritage Alliance, and Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt recently praised Heritage Open Days as one of the sector’s greatest assets.
But we don’t take this for granted. We know there’s a lot of hard work involved. Nothing’s for nothing. And often the burden of responsibility rests on very few shoulders. Before we go on to celebrate the achievements of this year’s programme, we’d like to say a heartfelt THANK YOU to you all.
To download the Winter edition of our newsletter which traditionally shares facts and figures for the past event, please click here.
