The next day Mandy went through the motorhome competition entries and was amazed at the quality and variety of ideas about what people wanted to do with a motorhome for two weeks if they won the prize. She decided to make a synopsis of each with the aim of passing them to the independent judge.
Many of the competition entries talked about a love for different UK destinations or European destinations. There were many entries describing the beautiful Welsh mountains, the quaint Cornish villages and memories of hot lazy days in Provence. Scotland was a popular place to visit with many talking about the beauty of its Highlands and the joy of staying at remote camping and motorhome sites.
Many other competition entries talked about visiting family and using the motorhome to stay locally at a campsite because there was not enough accommodation at their relatives house. Their pleasure was a simple pleasure of staying with their family made possible by the convenience of the mobile accommodation.
Other competition entries were from disabled people who needed to carry with them a lot of equipment on holiday because of their disability. An ordinary holiday was not possible and the motorhome holiday would be ideal.
A few feared their economic circumstances could soon make them homeless and wanted to know if they could live on the open road and become full-timers. Increasingly high council taxes and their own personal reducing incomes had brought them to the stage where they felt they needed to find an alternative. For them, two weeks in a motorhome was an experiment in another way of life that might be cheaper and more sustainable.
One applicant wanted to spend two weeks learning how to surf and living with a surfing community by the sea in Cornwall. It had always been his dream and he vividly described the crash of the sea and the joy of being in the waves if he won the competition.
The dream of returning to the village where a woman had lived as a child and standing in the school playground where she had played was described in another entry. For her it was a pilgrimage into her memories and the motorhome prize was the way by which she could make that journey.
In the course of making a synopsis of more than 100 entries, Mandy often found herself fighting back the tears, such was the power of the human stories. In one sense, it was a pleasure to read so many accounts of so many lives. In another sense, she was glad when it was ended because the journey had been so harrowing.
Mandy looked across the motorhome sales area and saw a young couple needing help and quickly passed her notes to Gladys to be sent off to the independent judge who was also a local councillor nominated during a recent Council meeting to be the final judge and to present the prize the next Saturday.
It was not by chance that Mandy had chosen the judging to be done by a local authority councillor. Getting support from the local Council was fundamental to the next stage in her plans.