When there has been so much to be sad and worried about recently there have been some very bright lights trying to keep all of our spirits up. One of those is young Alexandra Clarke who turned eleven yesterday. Because of the lockdown all the plans for Alexandra’s birthday, including a visit from her grandparents, have been cancelled. Her mum, Anna told me about this and wondered if there was any way she could maybe get a little mention in the Majorca Daily Bulletin. Yes! I thought, young people need encouragement and recognition. Here is one who deserves to be praised for her efforts.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/MajorcaMallorca and I decided to interview her about this. As I was writing the article I wondered if there was any other way to give this very sweet young member of our community a special treat and so I contacted a couple of her favourite places: Pirates Adventure, and the House of Katmandu. Both currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
I first spoke to Catherine Sasson, the owner of Pirates Adventure who told me that all of the cast had been on the island and ready to start rehearsals as lockdown started. “They’re all here!” she told me. But obviously it is a very uncertain 2020 season and the question of whether they will be able to open at all remains to be seen. When I told her about Alexandra and her birthday which had been due to include a much anticipated visit to Pirates Adventure Cathy swung into action. Unfortunately due to social distancing any actual pirate contact would have to be done via a video call but Hayley, one of the Pirates’ cast made a beautiful video for Alexandra and her little sister Isabella. Here’s the message Hayley recorded:
“Hi Alexandra, it’s Hayley here from Pirates Adventure. On behalf of myself and my Pirates’ family we would love to say hello to you and your little sister Isabella and to say a huge, huge happy eleventh birthday. We know that you are super sad that you can’t come and see the show at the moment so as a thankyou for being such a fabulous fan we would love to invite you and your family as our VIP guests on Captain Scarlet’s table because we know that she is your favourite captain. Also we wanted to say thankyou for your beautiful stories that you are reading online at the moment they are bringing so much happiness to so many children in a time when happiness and positivity is very, very important. Thank you again from all of the Pirates and from myself and the captains: Stay safe and we can’t wait to welcome you back to Pirates Adventure!”.
Hats off to Hayley as that message made me cry my eyes out, it also made Anna, Alexandra’s mum cry when I went around to surprise Alexandra on the morning of her birthday with the news. And the generosity did not end there, after presenting Alexandra with a copy of the Majorca Daily Bulletin with her story and the video from Pirates I had two more lovely things to give her.
Firstly a cake, decorated with a pirate theme, made by the brilliant local cake maker Diane Hughes (689 131 858) who makes birthday and wedding cakes to order. When I mentioned to Diane what I was planning on doing she immediately offered to pitch in and make a cake with less than 24 hours notice! So thank you Di, it looked amazing and I am sure it tasted delicious.
And finally, I presented this sweet family with another treat, a family pass to the House of Katmandu. I had called them and asked if it were possible to do anything as Alexandra had said how much she loved going to their waterpark and the response was immediate. “Yes, of course, she has been doing so much by reading her stories she should be given acknowledgement and a treat! This is the kind of community spirit we should be encouraging”.
Wow. I know Alexandra, her sister and her mum were bowled over, but so was I. The international Majorcan community rocks! Thank you to Pirates Adventure and the House of Katmandu so much for being so generous, we really can’t wait to see you all open and back in business again very soon.