Funding cutbacks had threatened the cancellation of the hugely popular free annual display, run for the past 20 years by the Coram鈥檚 Fields charitable trust - which relies heavily on donations and fundraising to keep open the children鈥檚 park and playground near Great Ormond Street Hospital.
But a dazzling show of soaring starbursts and glittering colours lit up the night sky over the seven-acre grounds on Friday after the event was rescued by Kier site manager Aaron Bailey and his colleagues, who are working on a building project at the Institute of Child Healthcare, which overlooks the park in Guilford Street.
Aaron said: 鈥淎s our site offices are directly opposite, my partner and I sometimes bring our two children to the park on Saturdays. When we heard the fireworks were facing cancellation we decided to raise the money ourselves.鈥�
For starters, Aaron and his Kier team donated bonuses they received for achieving good performance and safety standards on site. This, together with contributions from site subcontractors, brought the total to around 拢1,500.
This was matched by donations from other Kier sites in the capital and from Kier Construction鈥檚 London office, raising the 拢3,000 required to put on the display.
Coram鈥檚 Fields charity director Octavia Holland said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 fantastic that the guys from Kier stepped in to save the day. This is the only community fireworks event in the area and so many local children and their parents would have been disappointed if we had been unable to go ahead this year.鈥�
Aaron鈥檚 own family were there to watch him declare the proceedings open in front of a cheering crowd estimated at 2-3,000 strong. 鈥淭his is such a wonderful attraction for children that we simply couldn鈥檛 stand by and do nothing to save it,鈥� said Aaron. 鈥淚 would like to thank Shirene Jarvis, who is based at our head office in Loughton, for her hard work in helping us make this possible.鈥�
Shirene said: 鈥淚t was heart-warming to see so many young, happy faces lit up by the fireworks.鈥�
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