This year brought with it our first-ever Supporters Day which replaced our previously held Volunteer Conference and both volunteers and members were invited to connect and celebrate all we have achieved together for wildlife.
As always, a huge amount of work went into the planning and organisation of the day from staff across The Trust, so a massive thank you to all who helped!
It’s always an early start on the big day and a few of us arrived at UCLan at 8am to get ready for our stall holders arriving to set up. The Social Space of the Harrington Building made a perfect marketplace of stalls and displays, and the all-important brews and biscuits were on hand to keep us all going!
We welcomed stallholders from a number of Lancashire Wildlife Trust projects including The Bay, Fylde Sand Dunes Project, and the Merseyside Projects as well as external groups such as Let’s Grow Preston, Lancashire Environmental Fund (LEF) Green Grants, Lancashire Badger Group, and the Ribble Rivers Trust. Everyone was fizzing with enthusiasm about their work, and this helped to create the most fantastically positive vibe – it was a bit like the feeling you get before a big concert!
The volunteers and members began to arrive, and it was wonderful to see so many familiar faces all excited about the day. They wander off to browse the stalls - Preston Beekeepers were providing information about bees, predominantly the honey bee, and were selling some of their products, Helen from Evendawn Arts had delightful nature and wildlife-themed artwork available to buy, Jennifer Tidy on the LEF stall provided information about the three different grants available, Kate Ball was introducing our Trust's equality, diversity and inclusivity commitments and John Lamb was promoting his fantastic book “Lancashire: a journey into the wild”.
Following a welcome and introduction from Tom Burditt our CEO we heard from Dr Adam Moolna, Lecturer in Environment and Sustainability at Keele University, as he gave us a whistle-stop tour of environmental change in the Northwest and what it means for people and wildlife in their keynote speech.
Volunteers were then treated to workshops led by staff working on some of the amazing projects that we are running across The Trust. The Myplace Project explored the health and wellbeing benefits associated with connecting with local environments and Shaun who went from participant to volunteer shared a moving account of his personal journey, Bea Beggs got her groups physically involved in learning about Natural Flood Management techniques through re-enactment and physical theatre, Mike Longden, our Lancashire Peatland Initiative Senior Project Officer, supported by two PhD students (one presenting remotely from Germany) demonstrated how an understanding of the history of an area of lowland raised bog is invaluable for planning its restoration and Ben Hargreaves gave his groups an insight into existing and possibly increasing association of bees, wasps and ants with the urban environment.
The lunch put on by UCLan’s wonderful catering team was delicious as always and it was wonderful to see everyone having a good old natter over sandwiches and cakes.
After another workshop and a quick brew break everyone was reinvigorated and ready for our Annual Awards Ceremony, keen to find out this year’s award winners, these are volunteers who have gone the extra mile throughout the year. All our winners were nominated by staff and volunteers and our President, Chris Davies, made presentations to those who were able to be there.
