Weekend of fun with Friendly Faces

Everyone is very welcome, so pop down and say hello. It runs from 11-4 on Saturday and 12-5 on Sunday.

Little did Lurgan man Trevor King know in 1994 that a chance meeting on a Stena ship would change the course of his business life forever.

When his daughter got her face painted that Easter, Trevor got chatting to the two face painters. Face Painting was relatively new and Trevor was looking for a change of career from his job with the Pru as an insurance salesman. Twenty years later, Friendly Faces, the group he founded on his return, are going from strength to strength.

In those 20 years they have employed over 625 local young people. Their clients include almost every Shopping Centre in the Province including the likes of Castlecourt and Abbeycentre, every local council, and Meadows and High Street Mall locally. They have travelled several times to Romania and did tours of orphanages, entertaining the children and running camps and respite breaks.

But India is a new frontier. “I was lucky enough to travel in India two years ago as part of a musical project,” says Trevor. “When the invitation came this year to go and do in India what we have done in Romania, we jumped at it.”

A group of 12 young people will make the trip, centring around the city of Bangalore in June. The group will entertain as well as running kids fun days and working on some mural projects in a large orphanage in Danishpet.