By Wendy Davis | Trustee & Project Leader
Regular Monday workdays continued with volunteers tackling fence building, preparations for beating up and routine tasks ranging from tools maintenance to clearing and mulching the base of establishing hedgerows. Monthly Helping Hands community sessions in October and November saw wildflowers planted and hedgerows extended.
In addition to these regular days spent caring for the wood, every month saw some very special events:
In August...
Members of the Youth Team travelled to Costa Rica for an inspirational fortnight's volunteering with the Corcovado Foundation. A link to their blog page can be found below.
Families and Young Carers visited the wood for the last of our Timbershare workshops.
In September...
Our AGM was attended by 70 friends and members of the charity. The youth team led visitors around the wood, gave talks about their individual projects and entertained with stories of their recent trip to Costa Rica.
200 children attended our annual Peace Day procession on the 21st, proudly bearing 2 giant doves aloft as they walked through their wood in late September sunshine.
In October...
1000 wildflower plants, raised from seed by local residents, were planted in two locations - Harmony Woods and at the Community Orchard we planted in the centre of Andover in 2015.
With the worst of the pandemic behind us, we were really excited to be able to work with Andover Golf Club once again - the first time since March 2020 - to host a Plant-for-the-Planet Academy, where experienced youth members trained 15 new Climate Justice Ambassadors.
2022 saw the world celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II. As part of these celebrations, a magnificent sculpture - the Tree of Trees - was built outside Buckingham Palace. The sculpture was made up of 370 individual trees in large 'platinum' pots and, following its dismantling, the trees were gifted to organisations across the UK. We were delighted and honoured to be selected to receive one the trees, an Alder, which was planted in Harmony Woods on October 12th by invited guests including Deputy Lieutenant Lady Louisa Portal and children from a number of local schools. With the recent passing of Her Majesty, this was a proud and poignant moment.
Local WI members continued the theme of royal plantings, by planting a beautiful Beech tree in Harmony Woods as their contribution to the Queen's Green Canopy.
November arrived and with it the main event, our annual tree planting with over 1000 local children. It is this event in particular that your generous donations make possible, requring as it does £1000s to transport the children from their schools to the planting site. After a decade of children's tree planting, there is now only enough space for local residents to plant in Harmony Woods and the time had come to take Trees on Tour.
Partnering with Test Valley Borough Council we had arranged to plant 1500 trees in this new public nature reserve and, between 14th November and today, the 30th, have bussed a record 1100 children to carry this out.
We plan to find a new planting site every year and, with your continued help, will be able to keep supporting local young people to keep tree planting for a happy, healthy planet.
Thank you!
Links:
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