Celebrating 50,000 Hours of Volunteering at Didsbury Park
TODAY: AFTER 50,000 HOURS OF VOLUNTARY WORK - WE CELEBRATED WITH A PARTY !!
In last week's update, I reported the amazing news that we (the Didsbury Park Volunteers) had exceeded the milestone of 50,000 hours of volunteer work since volunteering began in November 2014. Today therefore we took the opportunity to have a small celebration in the park to mark this memorable milestone.
We were delighted that many of our original volunteers who had started this journey with us 11 years ago were also able to be present with us this morning. Charles travelled the furthest, catching an early morning train from Anglesey but Lorraine was not far behind as she came to the party on a detour from Wales to Garstang. Thank you both for making this special effort to join us.
We were also honoured today by having two distinguished guest speakers, the Lord Mayor of the City of Manchester, Councillor Carmine Grimshaw, and the MCC Executive Member for Vibrant Neighbourhoods, Councillor Lee-Ann Igbon.
The Lord Mayor thanked the volunteers for the huge benefits they had contributed to the local community and also spoke about the many benefits of volunteering too. Councillor Lee-Ann Igbon described the major benefits which our volunteers had given to MCC. Lee-Ann produced a lot of amazing statistics relating to all the hours worked by our volunteers such as, if just the labour contribution was calculated at minimum wage then this would be equivalent to a labour investment of £610,000 - a magnificent investment into Manchester parks.
There were lots of photographs taken at this happy and inspirational event today and we will be collating the best of these during the next few days but here a few tasters in the meantime:-
Picture 1 shows the Lord Mayor and Councillor Igbon with the original volunteers from November 2014 who were able to make it today. From left to right are myself, Lis, Lorna, Charles, the Lord Mayor, Mary, Emma, Sonia, Gill, Councillor Igbon, Gary, Roger and Pam.
Picture 2 shows our special 50,000 hours cake along with all the volunteers who organised and set up the party this morning. From left to right in the front row of the photograph are Sonia, Gill, Denise and Sandra and along the back row are myself and Louise. A huge thank you to you all for organising such an excellent party.
Picture 3 shows a group photo taken at the end of the party (apologies if you left before the very end are are not on this one!)
We were really pleased that lots of our colleagues from MCC parks could also celebrate with us today, along with councillors from both East and West Didsbury. Thank you all for joining in and making this such a successful and enjoyable celebration!
TODAY - BEFORE THE PARTY
Before the party this morning it was business as usual for most of the 36 volunteers who came to work in the park. Our volunteers this morning included Ed, Heather and George from the MCC City Homelessness section who considered themselves to be exceptionally lucky to turn up on a day when we were having a party. Everybody was made very welcome.
TODAY - THE FOOTBALL SEASON BEGINS IN DIDSBURY PARK
We had a great turnout from our 'heavy gang' today. A large team consisting of Adrian, Carl N, Richard, Rob and Esme made excellent progress on the sports field when they installed the last of the goal sleeves in the ground and then erected two sets of goal posts and new nets. Gary then marked out the pitch ready for use by the school children.
Picture 4 shows Richard, Adrian, Carl N, Rob and Esme posing in the nets of one of the newly erected goals. Great work guys!! There was a real buzz about the team this morning.
TODAY - THE CRICKET SEASON CONTINUES
Meanwhile, on another part of the sports field, Gary continued to mow and re-mark the cricket pitch. Even though we are nearing the end of the cricket season we are are anticipating that there will still be a demand for the cricket pitch especially after the England men's team's recent record victory over the South African's in the Men's One Day International Series!
TODAY - THE FLOWER WALK GETS SOME ATTENTION
This morning we had a large horticultural team working along the Flower Walk, keeping on top of any weeding and cutting back plants. Picture 5 shows Carl M, Jane, Christine, John, Kedir, Fasil and Wendy pausing for a moment from their work, for a photograph. Thank you - this area just gets better and better. Kedir and Fasil were also specifically weeding the bench surrounds and path edges too. Thank you.
Further down the Flower Walk we find Jude (see picture 6) planting and pruning and a little further down is Tristan is working on the rockery (see picture 7). Thank you both for keeping on top of both of these areas.
TODAY - GILLBROOK ROAD ENTRANCE
Picture 8 shows Brenda tidying up the path area around the Gillbrook Road entrance. This morning Brenda was helped by Lorraine who we can see in picture 9 as she returns having emptied a bucket full of fir tree needles into the green waste skip.
TODAY - THE SANDHURST ROAD ENTRANCE AND BOUNDARY HEDGE
Shasvat and Chris worked with Ed, Heather and George to prune back the park side of the hedging along the Sandhurst Road boundary. This was a much easier job for us to do today because the MCC team had pruned the Sandhurst Road side of the hedges last week. Thank you team and MCC.
TODAY - ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK
Although it was a short morning compared with a normal Monday, nevertheless we still made some great progress around the rest of the park too:
Roger (seen in picture 9) concentrated on the Bird Garden and adjacent flower beds. Thank you Roger.
Joyce de-weeded under the lecterns in the Bird Garden. Thank you Joyce.
Lorna worked on the watering and weeding of the new hawthorn whip plants. Thank you Lorna.
Picture 10 shows Grace, Lucy and Allan at the Volunteer's Shelter in the process of tidying the tools away ready for the party. Earlier in the morning Grace had refilled the doggy bag dispensers and Lucy had worked with the team on the Flower Walk.
Meanwhile in the woodland area some re-modelling and renovation of the existing bug hotels was being carried out by Kevin and Greg. Thank you guys and thank you also Kevin for taking some of the photographs at the party!
TODAY - BEST WISHES TO PATRICK AND SHASVAT WHO ARE RETURNING TO UNIVERSITY
Sadly, last week we said goodbye to Patrick and this week we also said goodbye to Shashvat, at least for a while, as they have now both returned to their University Courses. We wish them both the best of luck in their academic careers and maybe we will see them back again in the holiday periods? Good luck to you both!
Finally thank you once again to all our volunteers for 50,000 hours of your time and effort during the last 11 years and the amazing results you have achieved in the park.