Tyneside Sleep Out to Help Out

[Traceybarkwill]

Tyneside 'Sleep out to help out' Update:
This 2 night event began with 2 members meeting at Northumberlandia for an hour to do a litter pick. We spent £15.00 in the cafe and had a chat with some volunteers who seemed very positive.
The next venue was The Angel View Hotel in Eighton Banks, Gateshead where 5 units attended. We carried out litter picks on the local field and at the Angel of the North site and the nearby lay-bye.
We spent a total of £194.56 on food and drink and a further £92 in the local area. The food was delicious and the staff could not have been more friendly. Similarly, they complimented us on how we conducted ourselves which was lovely.
On day 2, we met at the Royal Quays Shopping centre for a mid morning drink from the new micro brewery and met with the manager who was also very positive - news to follow later. We spent a total of £118.50 (not all on beer)!
For lunch, we moved onto the local Marina car park and ate at The Lock cafe where we spent £41.50 before moving to our location for the evening.
We met up with another member of the group at North Shields Fish Quay where we paid £1.20 for 2 hours parking up until 6pm after which it was free (but no sleeping) so we moved over to a side street (listed on S4S) and parked up for the evening.
We ate at an outside seating area of the Quay Taphouse and spent £128 on food and drink (could have been more if it had been warmer!)
We did 4 separate litter picks at this site and had conversations with the restaurant manager who is supportive and with some locals who also seemed on side.
There was some noise early in the morning, as it is a working harbour, but the men (at least) slept through it!
Before leaving, some of us bought fresh fish from the local fishmonger and spent £42.74
The food, drink and service, throughout, was fantastic and the company was amazing.
The aims of these events are to show how we contribute to a local area in terms of supporting small businesses and to dispel myths about us being dirty or irresponsible but an added bonus is what a great time we have been having.
The final North East SOTHO will take place next week but is full. However, watch the space for one that will be taking place sometime in Lincolnshire, sometime soon.