Thanking our volunteers
It was wonderful to see over 110 of our volunteers join us at our Volunteers Thank You Event held on 30th June at Hopewell Colliery.
This year our theme for the afternoon was ‘Revealing our
Past, Securing our Future’, showcasing the Foresters’ Forest projects that fall
within those categories of the Heritage Funded programme.
We enjoyed lovely summer sunshine throughout the afternoon and had fun mingling and enjoying tea, cake and a Forest quiz. Quite a few volunteers also enjoyed having a go at wood turning with the Rewild Project team! Three mine tours also took place, enabling 20 people at a time to explore the mine under the expert lead of the Freeminers at Hopewell Colliery.
Our thanks also go to the project leaders and volunteers for
the inspiring talks they gave:
Securing our Future
- Future for Freemining – Rich Daniels and freemining volunteer
- Forest Explorers – Rosies Kelsall & Leoni Dawson
- Youth Rangers – Les Middleton
- #LoveYourForest – Glenn Redwood and Ann Harris
- Working with Schools – Sue Middleton
Revealing our Past
- Buried Heritage – Robin Jackson, Gwynneth Weaver & Phil Riches
- Built Heritage – Simon Moore
- Forest Oral Histories – Nicola Wynn & Pat
- Heritage Craft Skills – Scott Baine & Steve Perks
Awards and certificates were presented to our volunteers who
attended the event. In summary: 35
volunteers received the green badge for 50 hours completed, 10 volunteers
received the ochre badge for 200 hours completed and 1 volunteer received the
burnt orange badge for 500 hours completed. We do emphasise however that we consider all
650 of our Foresters’ Forest volunteers stars for the vital contribution they
make to all the projects!
The afternoon was rounded off by musical entertainment from
the excellent Forest of Dean Brass.
A big thank you to our volunteers!
