THE Flag-It-Up exhibition is now in place in St Edmunds Church, Kingsbridge, and will be running throughout November.

Flag-It-Up was launched in July when the first bunting strings were distributed to St Edmund’s church, Wordwise and Age Concern, inviting staff and customers to record their hopes and dreams for 2016 on the flags.

Susanne Akam-Smith, organiser, said: ‘As word of the initiative spread, greatly helped by an article in the Gazette, many other venues came on line and Flag-It-Up bunting strings sprang up all around Kingsbridge.’

The bunting has now been collected in and has been put on display in St Edmund’s church, which is open from 9am to 4pm for people to see the bunting.

Susanne continued: ‘There are many fantastic, funny and uplifting messages to read and we would love for people to come in and experience this unique and inspiring snapshot of messages from the Kingsbridge community.

‘Entrance to the exhibition is free but we will continue fundraising for our three charities: Tearfund Toilet Twinning, Kingsbridge in Bloom and St Edmund’s Lighting Project and donations will be gratefully received.’

The congregation of St Edmund’s church would like to thanks Age Concern, Cornelius, Dodbrooke Church, Kingsbridge Family Church, Kingsbridge Community Primary School, Kingsbridge Estuary Boat Club, Kingsbridge Estuary U3A, Kingsbridge in Bloom, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Selworthy Vets, Tourist Information Centre and Wordwise for joining Flag-It-Up and a special thank you to Donavan’s Department Store who unwittingly planted the seed for this event by kindly donating fabric sample books to them.

Messages include famous quotes, verses from poems, songs and the bible, through to birthday wishes and congratulations to friends.

By inviting the community and visitors for a small donation of £1 to write or draw a message on a flag triangle the money raised will be equally shared between Kingsbridge in Bloom, Tearfund’s Toilet Twinning, and St Edmund’s lighting project.

Tearfund Toilet Twinning is a charity that are providing toilets to the 2.4billion people who still don not have access to safe sanitation in 2016. Schools could use this activity to ‘Flag it Up’ to their pupils that other children are not so lucky in having this basic necessity.

The St Edmund’s Church lighting project aims to upgrade the lighting to a cost effective LED system to provide a bright and friendly welcome to people entering the church. Currently, although St Edmunds are pleased to offer a year-round open church policy, they cannot afford to keep the lights on during the day.

For more information on Tearfund Toilet Twinning, visit: www.toilettwinning.org, Kingsbridge In Bloom, visit: www.kingsbridgeinbloom.co.uk or St Edmunds Church, visit: www.achurchnearyou.com/kingsbridge-st-edmund-king-martyr