On Friday 5 October, the Digital Team trekked to the other end of the Jubilee line to spend the day volunteering in Canons Park.
How did we find a volunteering day?
We started our quest to find a volunteering day by looking on the Team London website at corporate opportunities. We were looking for opportunities that were free of charge and we were particularly keen to work outside, as we don’t get to do that in our usual jobs.
We managed to find a few that met our requirements and sent some emails off. We were pleased to hear back from Sharon from Friends of Canons Park, and we soon settled on a date to help them out.
What is Canons Park?
The leaflets we were given said the park is ‘Edgware’s best kept secret’. They weren't wrong as the walled George V Memorial Garden was beautiful with a pond as its central attraction.
The Friends of Canons Park are a local voluntary group formed in May 2003. They work closely with the council to maintain and improve facilities in the park.
What did the day involve?
We all arrived at 9.30am in Canons Park and were met by Sharon. She told us a little about the work we’d be doing and we wasted no time in grabbing some tools and heading to the memorial park which needed our attention.
We began the day litter picking and then moved on to clearing the flower beds. This was harder than it looked with some stubborn weeds growing! After a couple of refreshment breaks, lots of forking/digging and a broken trowel later, the beds were looking great.
Next we moved onto sweeping up leaves, deadheading the flowers and planting some daffodil bulbs ready to bloom in Spring.
Once we were finished, we took all the discarded vegetation back to the yard, ready for the council to collect and use as compost.
How did we get on?
By the end of the day, we were all very tired but feeling very pleased with ourselves for accomplishing such a lot in the short time we had. It was a glorious day and it was lovely to get away from our desks. Above all, it was great for team building and we all had fun!
We received an email from Sharon shortly after in which she said: “On behalf of the Friends of Canons Park I would like to thank the wonderful team of volunteers who gave up their time to help with gardening in the Memorial Garden in Canons Park. They were a really lively and enthusiastic group who made a huge difference”.
We’ll definitely be popping back in the Spring to see the fruits of our labour.
Friends of Canons Park always need volunteers to help, so if you are interested please contact them on: [email protected]