Community support for Carnival House

We sincerely hope the community will rally round to help the team behind Southwick’s Carnival House.

This is an organisation hoping to put a bit of colour into people’s lives but has been left feeling blue after a heart-breaking raid.

Husband and wife team Garner and Sandy Harris who run the business on The King’s Road have received, as they put it, a ‘kick in the teeth’ on discovering burglars have stolen £500 of property and smashed windows.

It’s a real sickener for the team who have transformed the former St Hilda’s Parish Centre which had stood derelict for 17 years.

As Sandy told us today: "We’ve put our heart and soul into the business and we’ve had some great feedback so to have someone wreck the place is a bit of a kick in the teeth.”

The community has already given the couple a lift. After posting about the incident on social media, Carnival House has received overwhelming support from the local community, something which Sandy has praised.

She said: “We’re just blown away by the support that we have received from everyone, people have really got behind us.

"We were feeling low by what has happened and it has made us realise that this is why we do what we do, it has been so lovely and it makes us hopeful for when we can actually reopen.”

And hopefully that reopening is swift. Once lockdown is over, the community will be looking to places like Carnival House to brighten their day.