Pocket Park in York
A group of hardy Yorkshire students have tackled a mountain of brambles to start the creation of a Pocket Park near to the Nestle factory in York. Volunteers from Huntington Sixth Form in York enjoyed a glorious day of sunshine and cleared the area ready for the next stage of the development. The BTCV York Youth team kindly supplied the group with hot chocolate for their efforts. The clear up was organised with grant funding from Greenprints and support from York St. Johns University.
Heworth Lighthouse project
BTCV York Youth team would like to thank all of the young people who volunteered their time during the October half term to transform the Heworth Lighthouse into a totally different space. The centre is used by York Young People's services to work with young people at risk who need an alternative curriculum. The site had been unused for a number of years before being taken over and was in need of some tender loving care. Working with the local charity York Cares, over 100 young people took part in making planters, bird boxes, murals, benches, mosaics, filling 50 bags of rubbish, painting fences, planting bulbs and making lots of fantastic artwork to place around the grounds. A big thankyou also goes to the BTCV midweek task group for creating a beautiful new footpath through the site making it a lot more accessible. This project was in part funded by Greenprints , local companies and other funders. If you would like to do a project similar to this on your site then please get in touch with BTCV Youth via our Contact page.
2000 young people!
The York Youth Team have done it, we've worked with a massive 2000 young people this year, who have volunteered with the youth team at York BTCV! If you have a group who would like to take part in one of our projects then get in touch now on 01904 644300.
Hackfall Woods
The Nidderdale AONB Young Rangers battled against the midgies to plant trees in the car park at Hackfall Woods, Grewelthorpe. They also collected 6 bags of rubbish and green litter to tidy up the car park. A big 'Well Done' to all of those who helped.
Family Challenge Day
We had a fantastic day at the Family Challenge Day, everyone wrapped up against the elements and got stuck into the activities. Many thanks to Peter and Irene who let us use Lime Tree Farm for the day and congratulations to all of those who took part. The winners will be contacted this week if they have won one of the following prizes which have kindly been donated.
Rohan Harrogate - £25 voucher and 10% off until 4th November
Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate - Family Yorkshire Tea raffle pack
Dales Countryside Museum - Voucher for 2 adults and 2 children
Ripley Castle - Voucher for 4 people
The Leeds Wall - a 2 person climbing session with a fully qualified instructor.
National Trust, Fountains Abbey -a family ticket to the Fountains Estate
Nidderdale AONB-Nature Identificate books
John Muir Trust-one year’s family membership (worth £36) of the John Muir Trust, with a copy of the 2009 Wild Nature Diary and Wild Nature Calendar.
Big Tidy Up
The event run by BTCV and York St. Johns University, York, was a great success with lots of students volunteering their time to clean up the River Ouse in York as part of the Big Tidy Up, the country’s largest litter tidy up, organised by Keep Britain Tidy.
Over 16 bags of rubbish were collected along the 3954 metre (8km) stretch of river, with both a water and bank collection team working together. The teams found some interesting items namely a supermarket trolley, a dinghy, a rusty bike, two mopeds and a safe!
The activity was organised with grant support from Greenprints and the canoes were loaned by York Canoe Club and LT Adventure.
To read the article in the local paper please click here.
Link to more photos on Flickr.
Get Moving week
BTCV took part in the ‘Get Moving’ week, which was led by the national mental health charity Mind.
Get Moving ran from 4-12 October 2008. The charities aims are to promote physical and mental health and to tackle mental health discrimination by bringing people together through physical activity.
OPAL at Chapman's Pond
The Open Air Laboratories (OPAL) network is an exciting new initiative which received a grant from The Big Lottery Fund to enable people to explore and study their local environments. They had a summer event at Chapman's Pond and BTCV were more than delighted to help run an activity on the day. Everyone had lots of fun; after pond dipping, identifying their beasties and having their faces painted they made a dragonfly hat to take home. Click here for pictures of the event on the OPAL website.
The York wormery!
We are all wormed up now in York with our new wormery. The worms are now hard at work turning our organic kitchen waste into top quality, nutrient-rich compost. Worm composting, or vermicomposting, is ‘the process of using earthworms to break down kitchen and garden waste, to create faster than normal composting. Compared to ordinary soil, the earthworm castings (the material produced from the digestive tracts of worms) contain five times more nitrogen, seven times more phosphorus and 11 times more potassium.
Get composting now!
Environmental day's in November and December
3-9 Nov Dyslexia Awareness Week
14 Nov Orangutan Awareness Day
17-21 Nov Anti-Bullying Week
20 Nov Universal Children's Day
21 Nov - 2 Dec National Tree Week
23 Nov 11 Million Takeover Day
5 Dec International Volunteer Day The annual celebration of volunteers who contribute to various causes and communitieis
6-7 Dec Tree Dressing Day
Boots and bandages!
Boots, bow saws and bandages!
We had lots of fun at Boots and Bandages and managed to have two beautiful sunny days on the site in New Earswick. The group were very busy attaching the recycled leaves to the metal tree, wheelbarrowing lots of woodchip, weaving the fedge and creating a planter for the entrance. As if that wasn't enough they also completed a St John's Ambulance First Aid course and of course they all passed!!
The ALPS group - pond creation
The ALPS group have worked hard towards creating an unused allotment in a nature allotment, creating a wildlife pond, compost box, managed the hedgerow and made a gate for the site. They have also worked towards their John Muir Award, so a big well done to you.
Eco-dating Summer 2008
Our second Eco-Dating event has now passed if you would like to be contacted with information of our next event please leave your email address here.
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Eco-dating is speed-dating with a difference – for anyone who wants to meet like-minded environmental people.
The world’s first Eco-dating hedge planting event held over Valentines weekend was a great success and at least one couple (and the trees) are still going strong!
The second Eco-Dating event took place along part of York’s cycle path network improving its habitat corridors over a weekend in July.
Participants have a short introduction on how to use the tools and equipment for the environmental project and are then be divided up into pairs. They then have ten minutes with each other giving them enough time to chat to their date whilst helping the environment. After ten minutes a bell rings they move on to meet another date.
Congratulations!
Congratulations to the pupils of The Base at Fulford High School for completing their John Muir Discovery Award. They worked hard designing, buying and creating a bird box and planter from scratch to attract more wildlife into their garden. The pupils took part in the Youth ACE Volunteering programme and improved their teamwork skills, communication skills, tool and design skills all in the space of ten weeks. Now they deserve a good rest in their summer holidays!
Yorkshire Agricultural Society's annual Countryside Days
BTCV York worked with over 100 school children for two days as part of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society's annual Countryside Days event. The children were given the chance to experience rural life and try their hand at both traditional and modern countryside skills. BTCV York talked about the life cycle of dragonflies from nymphs to beautiful creatures and made colourful dragonfly hats to take home. The groups also created this mini wildlife pond with the schools who attended. Well Done to all of those who participated in the days.
Huntington volunteers
Fresh out of their exams Huntington 6th Form pupils are creating a dipping platform for their pond over the next few weeks. To keep their energy going they snacked on fresh strawberries straight from the garden. Keep up the good work.
Heritage Hike
The Nidderdale AONB Young Rangers kept their eyes peeled as they took part in a walk along the Hartwith Heritage Trail. Their challenge was to find buildings, plants, rivers and many more things along the route which all make up the beautiful countryside and heritage of the area. Everyone did so brilliantly on the walk they earnt themselves a sticker and countryside code booklet. It's a good job one Young Ranger wore her wellies for Welly Week as she sampled the spring water on-route!!!
Welly Week!
The Nidderdale AONB Young Rangers took part in Welly Week - and went welly mad! It's a good job they had to wear wellies after the last few sessions have been quite wet!
Welly Week is organised by Garden Organic to raise funds to help educate and inspire people about organic gardening, farming and food for a sustainable future for ourselves, our children, our environment and our planet. During Welly Week everyone is invited to host a welly walk or wear their wellies to work and celebrate all that's good about organics!
Greenprints in York
York BTCV have been busy with lots of Greenprints projects this spring.
From creating a nature garden at York St John's University, to hedge planting on Bootham Stray and site improvements at Chapman's Pond with a group completing their Greenprints . A big well done to all of those who have taken part so far.
Greenprints is an England-wide volunteering programme which offers funding and practical support for greenspace improvement projects carried out by young people aged 16-25. You could simply turn up and take part in one or two-day conservation Events. Or, for those that fancy a slightly bigger challenge, Greenprints offers the opportunity for you to design and deliver your own Flagship project over a longer period of time and have a budget of up to £10,000 to do it.
The Greenprints Website provides a one-stop-shop to help you make your mark on the environment.
Huntington ACE 'Human Nest'
A group of 6th Formers from Huntington, York have prepared for the nesting season with this beautiful willow 'Human Nest'. The nest was deisgned to be a social area, bird hide and living willow sculptue all in one. Well done girls it's brilliant.
Student Volunteering Week
Students at York St John's University joined forces with BTCV York for the last week of February to take part in National Student Volunteering Week. Sports teams and societies transformed a piece of land into a brand new nature area, including creating a path, pond, bench and willow sculpture. The Aikido, rowing, hockey and cheer leading teams kicked off the week as part of a York BTCV "Youth ACE Volunteering scheme". The ACE project started a year ago after BTCV York secured funding from the Big Lottery to run the Youth ACE project in the York area. The Youth ACE project aims to work with new and existing groups of young people aged between 13 and 18 to create and develop their own projects connected to the environment. Well Done to all of the students getting involved this week, here's a quick reminder of the work you did on Youtube!
The Huntington ACE Tree
The tree has now been planted and the art group are getting their teeth stuck into it's metal construction!
Huby Community Tree Planting
Over 90 members of the Huby community braved the dark skies and planted a new hedgerow along a roadside verge. Families from the area enjoyed a breath of fresh air whilst they improved the environment of their local community.
Mother's Day Tree Planting Event
Congratulations to all of those who attended the Mother's Day Tree planting event at Bootham Stray. Over 500 mixed native species were planted in over 4 hours, a mighty effort fuelled by coffee and chocolates!
Eco-dating success!
Love was in the air at the world's first Eco-dating event in York, speed-dating with a difference! On Saturday 9 February, 22 brand new volunteers completed 150 meters of tree planting to patch up a length of hedgerow. BTCV staff and volunteers from York explained the principles of tree planting and after they had been divided up into pairs away they went off into the sunshine. After 10 minutes, the group rotated round to meet their next date and continued to plant a section of hedge. Over 90% of the daters were interested in meeting up again with people they met on the day!
High demand means we’ll be hosting another Eco-dating event at the start of summer, so keep your eyes peeled all you single people out there or drop us an e-mail!
The event was part of a project aimed at restoring local hedgerows and is funded by a Breathing Places grant from the Big Lottery.
Eco-Dating event – speed-dating with a difference!
York BTCV hosted the world’s first Eco-Dating event – speed-dating with a difference! The Eco-Dating event was romantically held on the Saturday before Valentines Day and environmentally conscious single people were able to speed-date whilst planting a hedge on Bootham Stray with like-minded individuals.
The event was aimed at local single people aged 20-40s. Participants were given a short introduction on how to plant a hedge and then were divided up into pairs. They had 10 minutes with each other giving them enough time to chat to their date whilst planting a short length of hedge. After 10 minutes they moved on to meet another date. Unlike other speed-dating events, Eco-Dating was free for participants, and hot drinks and cookies will be provided.
See our Press Release.
For more information on our next event, contact BTCV York on 01904 644300 or via email at york@btcv.org.uk. Spaces will be limited so call now!
Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto
BTCV works with many children and young people, the following Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto, launched by the Secretary of State for Education and Skills on 28 November 2006 is a useful document to have. To download a copy of the Manifesto visit here.
GLOBE project
The GLOBE project has now completed it's first programme. For more information on the project please click here or call us on 01904 644300.