Catching up with our friends at People’s Postcode Lottery
August 31, 2012
Yesterday I took the train to Edinburgh with Leah, a fellow member of the Fundrasing team, to visit our friends at People’s Postcode Lottery.
The purpose of our visit was to update the Postcode Lottery team with news of all the wonderful charitable work we’ve been able to get involved with across the Yorkshire Dales thanks to the ongoing support of the players of People’s Postcode Lottery. …so far players have raised an amazing £225, 332 for YDMT! We were delighted to find that the team were as excited by our recent acheivements as we are!
It was also a chance for us to catch up with the volunteering team that had travelled to the Yorkshire Dales to help us with some woodland management at Bolton Abbey just over a month ago (see our blog posted on 13 July for full details). We were really chuffed to hear that the team had all really enjoyed it, and to discover that Annie (one of the volunteers) had even written a short account of her day out. She’s very kindly agreed to let us share it with you now, so you can hear about the day straight from the horse’s mouth…
People’s Postcode Lottery Volunteers
The People’s Postcode Lottery Charity Team gathered at the office at 7:30am, ready for our 5hour journey down to the Yorkshire Dales. Our destination: Bolton Abbey.
After a few rest stops and sandwiches we arrived in the scenic, very green surroundings of the Yorkshire Dales.
We met with the three man team who would be taking us on for the day, Sarah and David from YDMT, and Mark from Bolton Abbey.
The abbey was founded in 1154 and the foundations still stand today. Originally built as a Priory it has withstood, though was abandoned, when attacks from Scottish Raiders in the 14th century rendered it untenable.
After a few photos with the picturesque abbey in the background, YDMT took us on a lovely walk through the hills to a beautiful freshwater waterfall – to demonstrate to us how funding from the Postcode Lottery was helping natural conservation in the area. David mentioned to us that they run programs allowing under privileged and disabled people from the surrounding districts to come out to this beautiful setting to experience for themselves life outside of inner cities, and the benefits of natural surroundings. David tells us that it is often an emotional experience.
Paddling!
After our walk to the waterfall, we were put to good work! We were given saws and instructed on the art of pruning. Our aim: to remove any overly-vigorous specimens to maintain the overall balance (including to allow the population of juniper bushes – which, surprisingly, are native to the local area! – to flourish). Unfortunately, there was no gin on offer that day!
In the time we were there, we cleared a considerable amount of excess growth – our YDMT guides seemed very pleased with the work and have invited us back again for the lambing season next March – April.
It was a brilliant day out and as always was fantastic to see what some funding from Postcode Lottery can do for a local area! I would definitely go back given the chance!
