Sir, – Thank you D&S for alerting me to the Big Draw day in the station at Richmond.

I decided to pop in at 10am, telling my husband I would probably be back by 11am. I stayed until 3.30pm. It was an absolutely fantastic day.

The NADFAS stewards, the tutors and students from the sixth form college in Darlington, all played their part in an exciting and efficiently-run day. As an ex-teacher I was thrilled to see the great range of ages participating and enjoying themselves.

No charge, no ranking or telling you which table to join.

You chose what interested you and joined in, everyone gaining in confidence as they went along.

They had a marvellous idea of long trestle tables with wallpaper rolls turned on the inside to draw on. When that part was full they rolled it up like a Japanese scroll and we carried on until the complete roll was used up and then they took the whole roll and displayed it on the outside of the building.

I thoroughly enjoyed trying charcoal pastels and chalk that I haven’t used for many years. With some young friends we made a seascape with whales, sharks, boats, swimmers and a lighthouse going on through an Alicestyle door into a cave leading to a world of stegosaurus and Loch Ness Nessie.

We all enjoyed the event and getting black with the charcoal, which we used to make handprints before cleaning it off with thoughtfully-provided wet wipes. What a brilliant community idea this was.

And, at a time of economic hardship, this marvellous day of learning and participation with others had no charge.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and you could hear people planning to continue doing more drawing at home and trying out new ideas.

Congratulations to everyone involved in this wonderful event and thanks for all the effort and to the station for hosting it. I do hope we may see another great day like this in the not-too-distant future.

GILLIAN M BRADLEY Richmond.