The lucky winners of the Westbourne VIP Valentine Experience Competition enjoyed a romance packed weekend in Westbourne Village where they were treated to pampering experiences, new clothes, Dorset Cream teas, chocolates, flowers and books. Valentine’s day was rounded off with a romantic candlelit three course Valentine’s dinner.
The Valentine’s competition which was organised by the Westbourne Trader’s Association (WTA) and funded by the Coastal BID and Westbourne businesses had a prize value of £1,000 and was launched in January. People were asked to nominate their partnerand describe in less than 250 words how they met, with judges keen to hear of any unusual, quirky or romantic stories. Over 230 entries were received from all over the country with one nomination even coming from someone in Burnmouth in the Scottish Borders!
The judges picked Conor Collins from Salford in Manchester as their winner. 25 year old Conor had nominated his partner Dan Ellis and described how they had met by chance last year whilst they were both on holiday in the South of France.
Conor and Dan had been independently experiencing white water rafting when Dan fell out in to the rapids. The falling out was not initially too much of a concern but when Conor spotted that Dan’s helmet had fallen off he galliantly jumped in the rapids to save him! Conor exclaimed, “I’m not even that much of a strong swimmer but I instinctively went in. We bobbed up and down until we were pushed through to calmer waters and we were able to swim to safety.”
Conor who is an artist, last year received much national acclaim and praise for his creative response to the homophobic backlash that Olympic Diver, Tom Daley, received from social media trolling. Conor created a detailed portrait of Daley in front of the British flag, made entirely out of the cruel tweets that he received. Conor has recently been commissioned by Manchester University to produce a portrait of Prince George, Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge, to be presented as a gift to Prince William when he visits Manchester University’s Business School in Shanghai later on this year.
Conor enthused, “Dan and I are absolutely over the moon to have won. We’ve never been to Bournemouth before and have had such a great time. We love Westbourne which is full of unique and independent shops. We’ve been treated like Westbourne royalty and enjoyed so many lovely treats!”
Dan added, “Everyone has been so welcoming and lovely. This is the first weekend that Conor and I have enjoyed away together and it’s been great to get away from City life and enjoy the beauty of Bournemouth. We’re quite overwhelmed by the VIP experience that we’ve enjoyed! We shall definitely be telling our friends about Westbourne and Bournemouth and will most certainly be back again!”
WTA President, Steve Taylor, concluded, “We are thrilled at the positive response that we had to the Westbourne competition. It achieved a Facebook reach of over 103,000. We are delighted that Conor and Dan have had such a fantastic weekend. It’s really good to get the name of Westbourne out there and for more people to discover this unique area of Bournemouth.”
Kate Shaw
