Community curry night after winter blues

The Cookham community gathered for a curry evening at Holy Trinity Church’s Parish Centre last week to beat the winter blues.

More than 70 guests were treated to a range of Indian dishes provided free of charge by the Cookham High Street restaurant, Spice Merchant on Thursday, February 22.

After the winter months had not been ‘an entirely happy time’ in Cookham, restaurant manager Hasan Chowdhury connected with Mike Clark from Holy Trinity Parish about organising a community event.

Mike told the Advertiser: “It was a very generous gesture on their part and certainly showed us the great value of community events and bringing people from all different walks of life together.

“It was a great event. Everyone was really enjoying themselves and the feedback has been absolutely positive and lot of people felt it was a brilliant initiative on behalf of the restaurant to hold an event and cheer everyone up after what’s been a difficult time.

“Spice Merchant felt it would be nice to have a community event which would brighten everybody up following all the drama we’ve had recently with floods and the bridge closure and everything else.

“It so happened to coincide with the arrival of our new vicar who’s recently been inducted into the benefice so it seemed a great idea to provide a lovely curry for not just the church members but also the parishioners.

“It was a nice community event which also enabled them and the new vicar to make each other’s acquaintances.”

Mike Clark noted that if Rev Stephen Mills needed evidence of the ‘amazing community spirit’ in Cookham then ‘it was more than demonstrated’ by the community curry evening.

Holy Trinity Parish ran a cash bar and an Indianthemed raffle to raise money for the Holy Trinity redevelopment fund, and wine and beer served at the bar were supplied by the Old

Butchers Wine Merchants in Cookham High Street.

Event organisers thanked Spice Merchant owner Bashir Islam and restaurant manager Hasan Chowdhury, Adam and Jayne from Devine Flowers who provided a bouquet for the raffle, and the community volunteers who managed the bar and raffle and helped with the washing up afterwards.