Winter 2024
First, I would like to wish my supporters and volunteers a very Happy New Year, I hope it’s great! Well folks, we are past the winter solstice now so the days are getting longer – yippee! The nursery children have already sown some beautiful sweet peas. Last year some of the nursery classes picked them to have a little flower arrangement on their lunch table, which is very cute. Hopefully there will more this year and we can give little bunches to take home or to people we think deserve them!
We had a few events before Christmas which kept me busy including a winter garden open day and two Saltire Awards Ceremonies. Thank you to everyone who came along to the garden event which was just perfect, toasted marshmallows and hot chocolate around the campfire, just the tonic for a chilly December day. Activities were designed by our young volunteers who also help to host the event! Well done everyone.
Congratulations to our young volunteers who received 10–25-hour Saltire Awards in recognition of their volunteering. I am very proud of you all.
The Beehive Garden Volunteers run nature-based activities with the little ones. They walk down from school every Monday rain or shine to come and play with the children. As their confidence grew the girls took on extra volunteering hours and now also volunteer in the nursery on Friday afternoons after school. The children love their visits and were keen to hand out their certificates! Congratulations to: Ava Cooney, Abby MacDonald, Amelie Patterson, Lauren Gilmour and Jasmine Miller.
The other awards went to, Elle Washington, Ava Greig, Annielise Dean, Amber McGowan and Jasmine Mann. Congratulations to you all and thank you for all you do at Dunbar Day Centre from serving lunches, clearing away, washing tables, putting out recycling, washing dishes mopping floors, making tea and coffee and helping with activities. But most of all for just being so committed, for engaging with the service users, having a good old blether, your cheerfulness is a real tonic.
In other news, I also attended a new parent’s event for children starting at the nursery this January. It was a great opportunity to chat to new parents and big up the Beehive – not that it needs much bigging up! We gave away lots of mystery seed packets and a helpful newsletter for all new comers. I am hoping I might have enlisted some new volunteers for our Saturday sessions which begin again at the end of this month. You do not need any special skills or equipment, just enthusiasm, solid footwear and a water bottle or warm drink.
Dates for anyone who would like to volunteer as follows:
- Saturday 25th Jan 10 – 12.00
- Saturday 22nd Feb 10 – 12.00
- Saturday 29th Mar 10 – 12.00
- Saturday 26th April 10 – 12.00
- Saturday 24th May 10 – 12.00
- Saturday 28th June 10 – 12.00
I also have to give a shout out to the Tuesday volunteer group that is slowly clearly the brambles and thistles on the allotment. In spring we’ll have more space to plant veg!
As part of my project, I support two local lads and very well kent faces the Jenny Brothers! My role is to get them out into nature and provide meaningful activities for them to get involved with. The outdoors provides a way of improving things and gives them more opportunities to be active, participate in community life, find new interests, and meet others. We have had a great year which began with us taking on our own allotment and sharing our produce with the local fauna! We have visited other gardens in the area, and we have also been developing their own garden planting herbs, veggies and wild flowers. The weather over past weeks wasn’t the best for getting out and about and slippy pavements make us nervous, so we stayed home, making and baking. We will be out and about as soon as the weather improves and can’t wait for our next adventures!
