Another one bites the dust

Is it really possible,that we have reached the end of another year ? We moved through our 9th anniversary in September. We all remember being told that time would fly and it has. It has been another remarkable year, with so much going on. In January we took delivery of our new greenhouse. Donated by Eden glasshouses of Cheltenham, this 20 foot pavilion has been a great asset. In february it was made even better through the kindness of local Rotarians, who paid to shelve and stage it. The allotment set was completed in March when we bought a substantial shed. The dedication of these units to the allotment has greatly assisted in the housekeeping of that space. March was also a good month for the woodworkers. We were able to complete the floor to ceiling racking of the workshop,which has given us great storage potential and Dowtys stepped in to offer us recycled timber as and when we need it. In April and May it was all hands on deck as we
committed to planting everywhere. We had a procession of people donating and planting commemorative trees in the meadow,including Laurence Robertson and Martin Horwood our two local M.P's. The vegetable plot has never been so busy. At the end of June students took part in the Cheltenham Circular challenge and in July we spent a week at the opera, working in the grounds of the wonderful West Green House in Hampshire.
August,described by some as the holiday month, wasn't here. Students turned out in there droves throughout the month. The summer also saw Julie Pullen start up her classroom. The enterpise,'Sharp Life and Learning' which is an independant satellite of The Butterfly Garden is offering teaching to those wishing to improve their numeracy.literacy and I.T skills. It is a partnership that is working well and which is a purposeful add on to the site provision.

Through September, there were more new arrivals,with the colleges and schools reappearing. This autumn we were delighted to welcome Alderman Knight School to the club and now see their students as well regulars  from  Milestones and Betteridge Schools across four days each week. Waitrose also committed to gathering aluminum cans for us and the county funded a waste compactor.
October was the month of the video,when our commitment to recycling them took off and when Cheltenham Borough started collecting for us. We have taken in thousands. in November we embarked on yet another adventure and opened a Pound shop. Students have wanted a shop for sometime and now they have one. We have been playing with it over the last few weeks and will formally open in 2012.

December has been a month of visitors and parties, indeed there will be three over the next week.

The celebration of 2011 closes with the most enormous thank you.

None of our activity have been possible without the kindness and consideration of our community at every level.Our volunteers who have cooked, sawn and sewn . Who have worked tirelessly to tidy and repair and who have jumped from planes,run marathons and tri-athalons,sold cakes,knitted gloves,donated bric a brac and told there friends about us. We close the year sending out a huge thank you. We promise that we will work to do justice to your belief and will strive to make next year extraordinary.

Happy Christmas.

ONLY A SUNDAY

We have been talking for weeks about the idea of the students taking a shop space in the garden centre and this weekend it happened. Spurred by the garden centre cafes decision to close on a sunday, we claimed a space and with the help of volunteers and with a pile of furniture from the Chelsea buiilding society we opened up.

The plan is to use the space as a cafe in support of the garden on sundays and to gradually develop a real retail space for student training over the coming weeks.
The sunday cafe will be volunteer lead and judging by last weeks response,they will be kept busy.

Already a rota is growing in support of the day and last weekend we had several donations of cake.

SUB TEXT........Another way

Dear All.......just bunging this out there..........excuse the directness AND PLEASE DON'T FEEL TARGETED........... Do  feel free to delete or redirect. Thank you !

As we continue to explore opportunities for fundraising, we have come across the Vodafones TEXT GIVING initiative. It allows supporters to donate just by texting.

 It is all very simple, donors just type in LONG28 followed by the amount they wish to give and then send it to 70070. 

You can help by circulating this news and by passing on our web information www.thebutterflygarden.org . 

          How quickly will we see a response  ?  

Will we have LONG 28 ...............? That is up to you.

Increased turnover

Since returning from our Opera adventure,things have continued to bounce on. The doors have been open this week and students have been pouring in. We have done an amazing amount of work.
There has been a big focus on our recycling initiatives,with Aluminium cans joining the stable of retrievable s. Waitrose have started collecting cans on our behalf and the students have greatly enjoyed the sorting and crushing. Aluminium is currently quite valuable so we are hoping that a momentum will establish with our collectors.

Of all the initiatives though, the one that has been most popular with students has been the dismantling of videos. With the video having been usurped by the DVD and charity shops no longer taking tapes in, discarded videos are all destined for land fill. As a curiosity, we starting dismantling tapes and found every element recyclable. We have trays of plastics and steel, aluminium clips, springs,cellophane, cardboard as well as bits of nylon. The students love it and there is great competition for the work.
As a spin off we are packing the seperated spools of tape and selling them on as a garden tie.
So, if you are having a clear out,or want to become a collection point do get in touch.

Something to make a song and dance about...ok, there was no dancing.

We have had another amazing spring,with just so much going on. Joan started her 'Soup Club' and Alistair became king of video recycling. A terrific number of people declared support for the project and committed to fund raising on our behalf and new enquiries have come in on almost a daily basis. We are very close to building our new classroom, are exploring the idea of setting up our first social enterprise, can now see a shape emerging where the outdoor performance space will be and as if that weren't enough we have just come back from our first residential.
Fourteen of us spent the week,helping with preparations for an outdoor opera festival in Hampshire. The venue was West Green House near Hook, a wonderful house and garden and home to an annual festival. We travelled into a surreal world and were embraced. Everyone rose to it, there were fourteen of us and we were everywhere. At the end of the week, there were tears and a big invite to come back.

As we drove away, there was a buzz and miles of shared laughter later a awareness of shared pride in our achievement.

CHEQUE MATE.............YES,PLEASE

Last week was greatly brightened by a visit from an old friend. Charlotte Padfield, who I have known for years and who formerly worked at Hartpury College, dropped in to see us with a cheque. The donation to the garden will make a big difference and we extend a huge thank you to her and to her family for their kindness.

Everybody dance................oooooo ?

Last night the faithful gathered for a disco. The event, was organised at the Aviator public house at Staverton and was a huge success. It wasn't ever meant to be a big fund raiser, more a celebration though we did run a raffle, which netted £245.00. We also made some very good connections with our community.The pub didn't charge us, the D.J offered his services for free and the dancing carried on late into the night. Without doubt the best bit was the students attendance. Once they started dancing,there was no stopping them and the at the end they were clamouring for details of the next bash.
I extend sincere thanks to our hosts Pat and Richard at The Aviator, who were fantastic, they run a great pub too and also to Mike Wickers our brilliant mobile D.J. He is a real professional,had an incredible range of music and without waivering once fed the insatiable demands from his audience. I can't thank Mike enough,but I can tell you,that if you need a good disco for any occasion,you'll work hard to find better. His contact is 01684-292651 or 07765572428 (Disco Masters).

With the spade work done,we can continue with the..........spadework.

 After much paper shuffling, the Land Registry have confirmed The Butterfly Gardens ownership of the new land. This was something of a relief as we had already planted a couple of hundred trees. This week we will really make our mark though. On tuesday we will be joining with a group of volunteers from Sainsburys at Barnwood to set about planting 250 more. We are intending too establish a small wood in one corner of the plot and expect to wrap the exercise up by the close of day. We are all greatly enjoying the new space and are delighted to see so many from the community sharing the land with us.
Spring is just around the corner and I can hardly wait.

One potato,two potato,three potato

Last weekend saw our volunteers in action at the local Potato festival, where we were given space to promote and sell in support of the project. A huge thanks must go out to Ron, Sally and Judy for their wonderful devotion. They manned the stall for two full days, encouraged new support, they pushed out leaflets,spoke with interested enquirers and somehow took a staggering £1,300. They were also responsible for lining up some work for our woodwork team. This week, we have received a firm order from Tetbury in Bloom for 20 of our bird boxes. Committee representatives from Tetbury called in at the site to confirm the requirement. The boxes will be passed out to Tetbury schools. We thank them for their support. They were a very enthusiastic team and I think that Tetbury is set to look stunning in 2011.
Check out http://www.tetburyinbloom.org.uk/

You took the words right out of my head ?

           Whatever happened to that year ? It is really nearly twelve months since we were nominated for The Pride of Gloucestershire Awards ? It is and last week saw the launch of the 2011 scheme. I was invited to talk to those gathered for the launch about what the award had meant to us (and apparently kept nodding across the beam of an overhead projector).
So,what did our award mean ? Well,broadly it brought recognition to the project, it put us on the map and delivered more students, attracted new volunteers, together with some very generous donations and it created a buzz around the place that lasted for weeks.
This year the scheme has been renamed and is now called 'The Heart of Gloucestershire Awards'. There are 7 award categories and the nomination forms are out.
Do join in with the process, we have much to be proud of in Gloucestershire.

My special thanks to The Gloucestershire Media Group for allowing me to use this picture.

Welcome to Eden

I am increasingly of the opinion that, given the choice most people want to help one another and this week we have witnessed a massive outpouring of support and kindness.
Over the last few days, we have had a team on site from Eden Greenhouses (who are based in Cheltenham). The company,hearing of our work have donated and erected a brand new 20 foot x 10 foot aluminium greenhouse. The students have given the crew no peace, being both interested and excited by the activity. The girls from Eden in particular attracted great attention. It was a delightful encounter socially and will be of enormous benefit to us. It didn't finish there either,our next visitor,Colin Prottey from Cleeve Vale Rotary came in with a donation to cover the cost of fitting the new greenhouse with staging,benching and a floor.
By tea time the fabricators were in measuring the bench spaces.

An enormous thank you to Eden, to Cleeve Vale Rotary and to all who have helped make the week so special.

Many happy returns !

Drizzle or no drizzle,it was back to business today and all of the regulars turned up. There were students from the colleges and schools, as well as from the community at large. Sean made it in from Lydbrook and Ben from Cirencester,Chris from Winchcombe,from near and far they came and by break time there were forty. It was a joy, friends reuniting after two weeks apart, with a million stories to exchange, jokes to be told and the biggest pile of festive leftovers to be devoured. A big thank you to the customers and visitors who brought in treats.
In the chaos of that coffee break came a reflection, at my good fortune at being connected with this group and at how much their company had been missed over the break.
The future is out there and through the grey looks very bright.