It’s possibly a bit pointless to comment on how long it has been since my last blog. So let’s draw a veil over that one …
We have had ups and downs galore since my last blog, with more ups than downs in fact. We have achieved amazing successes, notably a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund for £9,689, which is in support of our ‘Towards Ten Thousand Trees’ project. We submitted a press release on Tuesday 12th March in our local ‘Advertiser’, which you may have seen. There was also a follow-up on both our HBUF Facebook page as well as the Lottery Facebook page.
Ah, social media – how we all love it.
We’ve also got support from the Woodland Trust via their ‘More Trees’ initiative; and funding via the Central Swindon North Parish Council as well as a pledged amount from the Charity Ball.
So now to gird our loins towards the consultation and advertising campaign. These are both underway: we have planted the campaign seeds and hope and trust that mid- to end-April will see the shoots growing (do you see what I did there? Excellent metaphor, I feel).
I find it hard to accept that there may be some local people who are not completely in favour of planting trees, particularly now when there is so much talk about climate change, the benefits of trees to the environment and to people’s mental health, and that amazing Swedish teenager, Greta Thunberg, who is spearheading an initiative to insist that governments deal much more effectively with climate change. She has now been nominated for the Nobel peace (nearly wrote Novel peach) prize. I can only applaud her courage in being able to speak publicly to such august organisations as the United Nations, so feel that any nerves about campaigning for our project are very trivial by comparison.
Look for us at the Swindon Eco Fest 2019, on Sunday 14th April, 11.00-5.00, Savernake Street Social Hall. Loins might not be fully girded by then, but we should have some good ideas to share.