From left to right Dawn Gibbins MBE, Andrea Armitt , Billy Hyland , Gill Maltby, Paul Bates, Ellen Senior, Sue Holmes, Sandie Isherwood , Andrea Hall, and Andy Bailey.

Bearmania closes with a full house.

The Bearmania ball at the Lion and Swan closed to a full house of 65 people on Saturday night with a dine, dance and auction.

Nine items were auctioned and the winning bids were from Fiona Bruce MP, Sandie Isherwood, Paul Bates, Barry Holt, Mark Jones, Dawn Gibbins and Paul Cutler. Auctioneer for the evening was Mr. Bernard Rooney from Blue Bell BMW who squeezed every last penny out of the audience. Hosted by Paul Bates MD at Congleton Beartown Ltd. and compared by Andy Bailey from Silk FM the evening raised a total of over £2000 for charity. A cheque for £6500.00 was presented to Gill Maltby UK director of Animals Asia for Congleton’s Rescue bear Bosley  , the presentation being made by Mrs Sandie Isherwood head of Marlfields School in recognition of the input and creativity generated by our schools.

Bosley, Congleton's own adopted bear approved!

Gill Maltby UK Director of Animals Asia said:

"Please thank everyone for a super evening on Saturday, it was so lovely to see you all and there was a real sense of celebration, rightly so!  I am truly grateful that you have chosen to support Animals Asia as you are and now with beautiful Bosley in the family you are making a wonderful contribution to helping bears, you should all be very proud of what you have achieved."

A huge thank you to all the schools and children that have given their time and energy to helping raise funds and awareness of our bears, we look forward to seeing them all again soon.

Bosley, Congleton's own adopted bear approved!  More about Bosley...

With clear heads and an early start was needed on Sunday morning to lay out a finishing line of bears for the Congleton Beartown sting in the tail half marathon.  Perfect Conditions and an entry of 580 runners kept the army of volunteers busy. Katie Nuttall of the bearmania team and Mane Creative  braved being driven around the course on a motorbike to capture a video of the event which will be hosted on Congleton TV and youtube.