Sarah Cressall, founder of the multi award winning arts and crafts franchise, The Creation Station, has been awarded an OBE in the 2023 King’s New Year Honours List. Sarah, 56 received the award for her services to creativity in education, entertainment and business.
When complications during pregnancy confined Sarah to a wheelchair, she attended local activity groups with three preschool aged children but found they were very prescriptive with all the children having to do the same things. As a result, Sarah identified a gap in the market for activities that engaged and sparked each child’s natural curiosity and so she launched The Creation Station in 2002.
Sarah awarded the first Creation Station franchise in 2007 and there are now 61 franchisees offering creative arts and crafts experiences for children and adults. These include parent and baby workshops, preschool STEM classes, afterschool and holiday camps, birthday parties, adult creative craft workshops and Paint & Sip events. Activities are also run in partnership with leisure centres, holiday camps, local pubs and care homes.
Sarah joined the British Franchise Association (BFA) in 2009 and served on its board from 2019 to 2022. She said: “It was always important for me to do things the right way, so I went to the BFA for that help and advice and stepped up to serve on the board, not only to continue to raise standards in the industry but also to ‘give back’ to an association that has been so supportive to me and my business.”
The Creation Station head office runs a creative activity entertainment agency which provides franchisees with contract work and leads. Event entertainment includes activities at shopping centres, festivals, in-store events and the Kids Zones at both the Olympic and Commonwealth Games. It is now a nationally recognised brand that has reached 1.8 million people to date and has collaborations with international brands such as Hasbro, Sky and Crayola. The franchise donates products, workshops and online activities to many national and local charities including Home-Start and Starlight Kids.
Discussing her award Sarah said: “I am of course delighted that my work has been recognised and I’d like to thank my husband Duncan and our three boys Sam, Ollie and Josh for their support and all our fantastic franchise partners and the team at The Creation Station, but I’m also really pleased for the franchise sector.”
Pip Wilkins, CEO of the BFA said: “We are absolutely thrilled that her hard work and professionalism have been recognised.” As a personal tribute, she added: “Congratulations Sarah, the industry thanks you and we look forward to seeing more exciting things from the Creation Station in the coming years.”
