On Saturday 9th of September 2023, Heart & Parcel were honoured to cater for a particularly special event: SamFest. This evening took place in Levenshulme Old Library and was to celebrate the life of a wonderful, kind and vibrant woman, Sam Orton. Through this event, Bob and all attendees raised an unbelievable £9060 for Heart & Parcel through donations, tombola raffle and a silent auction.
After a year and a half of the money being used across our entire project, we gathered together to celebrate all the wins at the People’s History Museum on the 25th April 2025. This was a celebration of the projects funded by the Sam Orton Fund. In particular, everyone took part in activities from our creative writing sessions and we shared the work from learner-writers who participated. You can get a snapshot of what happened during that event by clicking on the below links:
Co-founder and Managing Director, Clare Courtney | Speech and SamFest money Impact
Director and Learner manager, Hanane El Hadioui | Poetry written during the event
Learner, Esther | Speech and Poetry from the Creative Writing Classes
SamFest Organiser and Sam’s husband, Robert Dinn | Poetry reading from a selection of Sam’s Poems
Learner, George | Poetry from the Creative Writing Classes
Collection of all Creative Writing from the SamFest Project
A huge thank you to all of Sam’s friends and family, to Bob for making this all happen, and for the People’s History Museum for offering their beautiful space to gather together.
