WELCOME
Hello from the Include Us team! We can’t believe that our lovely summer weather has moved so quickly into autumn but it happens every year so we shouldn’t be too surprised. This is our first newsletter since June but don’t think we’ve been lazing around…..we have been very busy beavering away to make Catherine Street Play Park accessible and inclusive for more children, young people and adults. This is the first newsletter to go onto our new website – so check it out so that you can keep up to date.
COMMUNITY GARDEN
Community Garden? Wait a minute…is that new? Well yes! As we’ve been refining the designs for the park it became clear that we had a bit of space for planting areas. So we couldn’t resist putting sensory planting, a small wildflower area and raised beds into the scheme. As well as having a range of beautiful flowers in the park we hope that children, young people, parents and volunteers will help us to grow herbs, soft fruits and vegetables and then them to take them home to enjoy.
EXHIBITION OF PLANS – DATES
August was an exciting month for us because we ‘signed off’ the final design for the park! We will be having an exhibition of the plans during the October school holidays so come and visit us.
Mon 22nd October – 11am till 6pm – Bakers Oven, High Street, Dumfries
Tue 23rd October -11am till 6pm – Bakers Oven, High Street, Dumfries
Wed 24th October -10am till 4pm – The Usual Place, Academy St, Dumfries
Thu 25th October -10am till 2pm – The Usual Place, Academy St, Dumfries
We will be having a BBQ lunch in the park on Thursday 25th between 12 and 2 so come and have a look at the plans then join us for a sausage!
AUGUST PLAY DAY IN THE PARK
We had a lovely day in the park on 1st August with our friends from Access Art and Joanna who all helped kids make lovely things to take home. The Usual Place provided chairs for folk to sit on, Graham from ‘g-e photography’ gave up his free time to take some beautiful photos of everyone having a ball. People brought picnics, the weather was kind, some new friendships were made and families who had never been in the park before ventured through the gate!
COMMUNITY FUNDRAISING
On Saturday 11th August 18 brave souls did a sponsored climb of Criffel for Include Us. The final total was over £1500! WOW, what an achievement. A very big thank you to everyone who donated and sponsored individuals. If you missed helping out this time don’t worry – there will be plenty of opportunities in the future to help us with a range of Community Fundraising ideas.
Keep a lookout for how to join our FUN-raising Group which we will be launching.
INCLUDE US WEBSITE
We’ve been working hard to create a website which we hope you will find interesting and informative.
BECOME A FRIEND OF CATHERINE STREET PLAY PARK
We would like to invite you to become a ‘Friend’ of the park by becoming a member of Include Us. It’s free – learn more about what’s involved by clicking here
A QUIET SPACE
We realised that children and young people can sometimes feel overwhelmed by all the biz and noise in the park so we’ve managed to find an old red phonebox which we hope to refurbish and turn into a quiet space to offer a quiet space. It will take time to make it right but we thought, once the phonebox is in place, it will be a great project for the community to help us with. Let us have your ideas about how we could use this fab space.
The ideas so far include:
A quiet reading space
An information point for young people
A wee nook for private chats
The phone box will be closed when the park isn’t manned so we intend to keep it a clean, safe space!
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO SUPPORT THE PARK?
Keep updated on our Facebook Page. Join us on our Play Days so that you can have fun and we can have a chit-chat with you. Give us feedback about the newsletter, Website and Facebook page. Think about becoming a Friend of Catherine Street Park or do a bit of fundraising for us! Whatever you do please share our news and be part of this exciting future.
We would love to hear from you!