'Aladdin' Delves into Cave of Wonders for Island Charities

We are thrilled to announce that we have given away £6,200 to local charities, following our successful run of Aladdin during the February half term.

The production was The Wight Strollers' 35th annual pantomime and takes their grand charity total over the £130,000 mark, with every penny staying on the Island.

We handed over our charity donations at our AGM on Thursday, April 23, to representatives from both causes.

Louise Walker, Commercial and Community Training Manager for the Isle of Wight Ambulance Service, accepted a cheque for £5,000 to purchase three Public Access Defibrillators, in coded boxes to make them accessible 24/7, for the Island.

She said: "What a privilege to meet such an amazing group of people...words are not enough to express my sincere thanks on behalf of the Isle of Wight Ambulance Community Training Department.

"Without a defibrillator, your out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival chances are 5-6%. With one, that can go up to 74%. I can't thank you enough - this is an incredible donation to the Island community."


Joan Rigby a former member of The Wight Strollers, then collected a £1,200 cheque for the IW Prostate Cancer & Urology Support Group.

"Who'd have thought, when a small group of us got together all those years ago and performed as The Wight Strollers, that we'd come so far?

"A big thank you to The Wight Strollers for this generous donation," she said. "As usual, the Strollers pulled out all the stops to provide a top class production which the IW should be proud of."

After we'd presented the cheques, we arrived at the matter of our 2016 pantomime, which will be - drumroll, please! - Mother Goose, to be performed in February 2016 at Medina Theatre. It will, once again, be directed by Sarah Scotcher, who fought off tough competition from a guy called Spielberg for the privilege!

Three committee members were also due to stand down, but all three - Mike Squibb, David Kast and myself - were re-elected to serve another term.

One thing that was clear, looking out at the sea of faces in attendance, is how far The Wight Strollers have come over the years, and how incredibly lucky we are to have such a dedicated membership and loyal audience following.

"Over recent years, the standard of our productions has risen and I didn't think we could get much better," said Mike Sutcliffe, our Chairman. "But with Aladdin we did. Everything was outstanding...

"I am incredibly proud to be part of a small family company like ours, capable of staging something so spectacular, taking our reputation to an even higher level."

Well said, Mr Chairman - very well said indeed!