Kew Gardens Grow Wild’s flagship, the Cornfield Project, launches.
TWO local communities in Coleraine, Millburn and Ballysally, are busy preparing for a magical woodland enchanted evening to celebrate the launch of the Cornfield Project on Saturday 10th September 2016.
Following on from winning a public vote to become Grow Wild’s Northern Ireland’s flagship site in November 2015, Coleraine’s Cornfield Project received funding from Grow Wild to transform a large area in Hartford Park, Ballysally.
Supported by the Big Lottery Fund, Grow Wild is the national outreach initiative of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and aims to bring people together to transform local spaces with native, pollinator-friendly wild flowers and plants.
At the Cornfield Project, local community volunteers, both young and old, have been busy working alongside the Conversation Volunteers to transform an area of scrubland into 7.5 acres of community woodland with beautiful wild flower meadows, sensory garden, community gardens and outdoor classroom spaces.
This fantastic project is focused on creating thriving and colourful areas of wild flowers, wildlife and environmentally sensitive spaces which are to be used by, and enjoyed by, all members of the public.
The launch event is a free festival for everyone to come along and see what the project has achieved so far. There will be a Mad Hatter’s Fancy Dress Tea Party, live entertainment and music, storytelling, an appearance from Coleraine’s own renowned professional magician, Rodd Hogg and an outdoor cinema showing ‘Alice in Wonderland’.
Award winning local sculptor, Sara Cunningham Bell will be unveiling her new sculpture for the community space, a three metre high new insect called ‘George’ with its own neighbourhood story created especially for the Cornfield Project after collaboration with local community groups. And fellow local artist Harry McMahon along with Jenny Methven will showcase how the community has helped transform a derelict wall into inspirational wall art.
The project will be officially launched by three local children from the two communities and the Mayor of Causeway Coast and Glens, Alderman Maura Hickey.
Catherine Armstrong, who is leading the project on behalf of Aspire Community Partnership, a local consortium of grass-roots community groups who are working together for the benefit of the Causeway area, said; “The Cornfield site was an underused patch of land dividing the communities of Millburn and Ballysally in Coleraine. By getting local people involved to help transform the woodland we hope it will help tackle issues of low employment and health by creating activities which will increase people’s confidence, enable them to develop new skills and friendships which in turn will help provide a positive and fun sense of community. By coming together and creating an area for wildlife to thrive, the natural habitat also provides all members of the community with a beautiful outdoor space to enjoy.
“The evening woodland festival will celebrate the launch of the project and hopefully encourage more people to volunteer and get involved. We hope that the framework we use here will be adopted by communities throughout Northern Ireland.”
Stephanie Baine, Grow Wild Northern Ireland Partnership Manager said; “The Cornfield Project won a public vote to become the Grow Wild flagship project for Northern Ireland. The project is bringing two separated communities together and it has been inspirational to see how the local community has engaged with the project. The woodland has truly been transformed into a magical place, the local people are getting passionate about the wildflower meadows and the training opportunities are just beginning. We would encourage anyone to come along and get involved.”
Big Lottery Fund NI Director Joanne McDowell said; “Grow Wild is all about bringing people together to improve their environment and benefit their communities, and it’s wonderful to see how local people have transformed this area. At the Big Lottery Fund we want to support people and communities to improve the places where they live. This fantastic project is bringing that ambition to life to create a beautiful, interesting and wildlife rich space for the community to enjoy.”
Grow Wild received an incredible 23,493 votes to be named the UK’s Best Environment project in this year’s National Lottery Awards – the annual search to find the UK’s favourite Lottery-funded projects. Grow Wild’s achievements, including a number of locally funded projects in Northern Ireland helped them win it.
The festival woodland area will come alive with twinkly lights, magical glowing trees and plenty of activities for people to get involved with including searching for bats, hunting for moths, building a bug hotel and making willow creatures with local willow artist Louise McLean.
So come along and join us for what promises to be an evening of enchantment and see just what the project is all about on Saturday 10th September from 5.30pm to 9.30pm.
To celebrate winning their National Lottery Award, Grow Wild are giving away thousands of FREE wild flower seed packets to people all over the UK. For more information and terms and conditions please go to www.growwilduk.com