24th June 2025
Fun and Festivities at the SMILE Lone Parent Fair 2025
It was wonderful to see more than 85 families at our annual SMILE Lone Parent Fair this year.
Over 300 people got together to catch up with old friends and meet new, enjoy delicious pizza and bean burritos, brave snakes and other wild animals!, pot houseplants, be pampered and generally enjoy an afternoon of fun together.
Our free annual event enables single parents and their children to enjoy an afternoon of festivities and fun, without the burden of the financial cost.
Photo: fun at the Hook a Duck stall
A SMILE Mum described the day as:
‘Beautiful family fun… a wonderful day without having to say no to the kids because we can’t afford it.’
Photo: Rachael and her Mum from Pizza with Love.
We couldn’t run the Lone Parent Fair without the amazing support of local churches and businesses. Rachael from local business Pizza With Love provides the extremely popular and delicious wood fired pizzas for the fair – she explained why it’s so important to support the day:
‘It’s an incredible event. I just think that things like this are so important. My Mum pretty much single-handedly brought me and my brothers up, so I’ve seen first-hand how difficult it can be for a lone parent.
Events like this give children who wouldn’t necessarily have the opportunity to go to a fair the chance to experience something special.’
Photo: Cllr Mark Howell discusses the SMILE project with SMILE Project Lead Rachael Peck.
The Mayor of Poole, Cllr Mark Howell, had a tour of the stalls to see a glimpse of some of the amazing work that the SMILE project does.
Cllr Howell said:
‘It’s really difficult to be a single parent. The challenges of the modern day are difficult for many people but for single parents it’s really difficult.
[SMILE] have put on a fantastic day… you can feel the energy of people here enjoying the occasion, and that’s fantastic.’
A huge thank you to all the volunteers, church teams and local businesses, as well as the Mayor of Poole, Cllr Mark Howell for visiting the special event.
You can find out more about the SMILE project below…
