Friends of Memorial Park Task Days in 2015
Here are details of our task days in 2015.
Task Day 11 July 2015
This week volunteers tackled the woodland behind the library, treatment of benches, tidying of the Garth Road shrub bed, hacking back of ivy on the toilet block, trimming of flowerbed borders, litter picking and repair of a picnic bench in the Infants Play Area. Another good day, thank you folks!
Task Day 27 June 2015
A handful of volunteers worked on the flowerbeds, the cinema shrub bed and weeding the paths around the library today while three others were trained in the use of power-tools by Solutions SK in Brabyns Park. The training will allow us to use small power tools like drills and sanders as well as the larger tools we were trained on. After finishing in the park we did some work on Lock 17, the project we did with Marple Locks Heritage Society several years ago to commemorate the late Gordon Mills.
Task Day 13 June 2015
What a difference a day makes! Just a handful of volunteers braved the rain to add more plants to the flowerbeds during today's task day - the plants love it of course - and a team from Marple Allotment Association too. Despite the weather it was a productive day and the flowerbeds are looking fantastic!
Task Day and Family Treasure Hunt 30 May 2015
It was a relief that the weather held out because as well as our regular task day activities, today was the Family Treasure Hunt in the Park organised in conjunction with new local estate agent Julian Wadden, whose premises is close to the park entrance.
Flowerbeds and Benches
For task day volunteers it was all hands to the flowerbeds and benches. We're receiving fantastic comments about the beds and it seems that everyone is as pleased as we are with their progress but they do take a lot of weeding! The benches in the park have been transformed by our volunteers over the last few years and we're determined to keep on top of them now with regular cleaning, sanding and treating to keep them looking and performing their best.
Once again visitors to the park showed their support for what we are doing by placing £29 in our collection bucket.
Family Treasure Hunt
The Family Treasure Hunt, which ran from 11am to 2pm, was aimed at 3 to 10 year olds with parents, grandparents or carers assisting as needed. There were two sets of clues, one for ages 3-5 years and the other for 6-10 years. Children hunted for clues to answer questions that would reveal the information needed to open the Treasure Chest for a share of the booty. Everyone who completed the hunt took away 8 pieces of gold chocolate!
This was a FREE EVENT but there was a collection bucket for donations to Friends of Marple Memorial Park, a raffle with prizes donated by local businesses and the event programme was also sponsored by local businesses too.
The event today raised a grand total of £402 for the park.
Friends of the Park would like to say a huge thank you to Julian Wadden Estate Agents for organising this event with us and the following local businesses for their fantastic support:
Programme Sponsors: Magpie Cottages, Stationery Supplies, Marple Drama, Helen Winterson, Marple Local History Society, Kathy’s Caterpillars, Rhodes & Partners.
Raffle Prize Donors: Crafty Ladies, Pink Parrot, All Things Nice, The Antique Rose, Kay Dees Hair & Beauty, Harmony Decor, Gosling Toymaster, Costa Coffee, The Linen Room, Stationery Supplies, The Rolling Pin, Marple PO.
Thank you to everyone for supporting your local community park!
Task Day 16 May 2015
Another apple tree was planted today to replace the one snapped off by vandals, lots of new plants were added to the main flowerbeds, the infants play area bed, the sensory garden and the "Sweet Relief" bed (also known as the Bog Garden). Lots of weeding and tidying of flowerbeds and we were really pleased to be joined by a new volunteer who brought her baby along too.
Other tasks included a start to our annual programme of treatment to the wooden features in the park, a really good tidy-up of our tool store and a dose of litter picking.
Generous visitors to the park placed just over £18 in our collection bucket, even though we forgot to put it out until after 11am.
Task Day 25 April 2015
After clearing up loads of broken beer bottles left by those who think the park is there purely for their own convenience and have no regard for others, it was all hands to the flowerbeds for this end of April task Day. Other tasks included staking a couple of the fruit trees we planted last time, planting of a donated cobnut bush and a litter-pick around the park to remove Friday night's detritus. We also sold some used plant pots and had our donations bucket out again.
Generous park users who appreciate what we do popped almost £33 in the bucket but a special thank you is needed for the lady who purchased drinks and chocolate treats and gave them to our busy volunteers. Restores your faith in humanity!
Task Day 11 April 2015
Decent weather at last saw volunteers start the task day by digging out hundreds more ash saplings in the woods and planting 10 fruit trees along the canal-side woodland walk, while others tidied up the Reading Circle behind the library.
Following that it was all hands to the flowerbeds to start catching up on their maintenance and a thorough litter-pick of all areas of the park too. Park users donated nearly £7 in our bucket during the short time we were working on the beds too.
Task Day 28 March 2015
Not many photos this time due to heavy rain for most of the morning but a handful of volunteers donned waterproofs to brave the weather and a fair bit of work was achieved.
It wasn't one of our most rewarding days in the park to be honest. As well as the rain, we discovered that our WWI timeline display had been subjected to obscene graffiti, there was graffiti all over the benches near the bowling green and disgusting dog mess all around the flowerbeds. A litter-pick around the perimeter of the park also revealed numerous full dog poo bags thrown in the bushes. All this abuse of the park by people who use it is rather depressing.
We even found a new Asda sign that had been graffiti-ed and ripped off the wall. We've recently objected to this sign in our comments on Asda's planning application but do not condone its removal by vandals. We reported it to contractors in the Asda car park, however, we do hope that they will not refit it until after their planning application has been processed because we believe that the planners will take note of our comments on this particular sign and reject it.
On the positive side, shrub beds were maintained and several new plants put in, fence posts installed, a start was made bashing the huge amount of self-seeded saplings in the canal woodland and we had some fabulous cakes. We always have cakes during our tea breaks but today's were a special homemade treat by one of our volunteers and were definitely the highlight of the day!
Task Day 14 March 2015
Volunteers were so enthusiastic to get back into the park that we decided to squeeze in an extra task day for March.
A really good tidy-up of the shrub bed at the top of the park near where our second silhouette will soon be installed was the first thing tackled. Management of the woodland walk alongside the canal was completed, more bulbs planted and more work to the flowerbeds and the Sensory Garden were also carried out.
Two large gaps were filled in the Beech hedge bordering Station Road and Willow whips were planted with the longer term intention of creating a bird hide along the woodland walk too.
Task Day 28 February 2015
With our January task day being snowed off it seems like an long time since we've been in the park and it was great to get back and do some work. The park is springing back into life with a great display of crocuses and snowdrops.
A real good tidy-up of the shrub beds alongside the driveway into the park was followed by similar treatment for the beds in front of the Scout Hut and alongside the Senior Citizens Hall. The Jubilee Bed in front of the library, the toilet bed and the shrub bed towards the top end of the park were also tackled, as was the wildlife area behind the library.
While this was going on another small team was carrying out some management work to the woodland alongside the canal and another was preparing the goal-post frame at the top end of the park ready for its new silhouette artwork. This will be the same as the one we recently installed at the main entrance. We've been getting great comments from the public about this and we're delighted with the results. We'll be adding a new project page about this in the near future.
Marple Allotment Association were also in attendance tidying up their beds and like us they're looking forward to spring!
