Park Holidays UK helps youngsters beat lockdown blues with story-writing challenge

Park Holidays UK is helping youngsters to beat the lockdown blues with a story-writing challenge – and a prize which turns their fantasy into a fun-filled frolic.

That's because the winner will see their tale take to the stage and performed live by a professional cast during a free weekend stay for the whole family.

The group says it was inspired to run the competition after seeing a huge increase in visitors to its Facebook page since the lockdown began.

"Numbers have shot up, especially since we started posting a lot of happy and light-hearted content for children to enjoy," said Park Holidays UK Director, Tony Clish. "So we decided to make our pages even more interactive, and are inviting youngsters to put their imaginations to work with a story about our parks' much-loved mascots.

"We know that many parents are home-schooling right now, so this could also be seen as a fun way of encouraging them to discover the magic of story-telling.

"To make it fair, we have created three different age categories – and the only two rules are 500 words or less, and let the story leave us smiling!"

The parks' three mascots – Loopy rabbit, Cyril Squirrel, and Penny hedgehog – are firm favourites at its 30-plus seaside holiday parks in southern England. The friendly pals take part in much of the all-day entertainment laid on for smaller guests and, says the group, regularly receive adoring letters from their young fans.

Now one lucky boy or girl with a gift for storytelling will be winning their family a long weekend's stay in gold standard accommodation on the park of their choice.

There they will see their story acted out on stage in front of a live audience by members of the Park Holidays UK entertainments team.

Anyone aged from five to 16 can take part in the competition, and two additional entrants in each of the three age categories will receive prizes, in addition to the overall winner.

All winners will be sent a bumper pack of mascot goodies – and may also see their stories featured on Facebook and/or on the Park Holidays UK website.

"Holidays make up some of our happiest memories, so it's not surprising that many people are now thinking and planning for when normal life can resume," said Tony. "In the meantime, we hope our competition will help keep everyone's spirits up until Loopy, Cyril and Penny can see their playmates come marching back!"

Details of the competition and how to enter are published on a special web page here.