North East families are being invited to get outdoors and get hands on over the Bank Holiday weekend at a free event designed to celebrate 30 years of work in the region by an environmental charity.Groundwork North East & Cumbria helps people and organisations make positive changes in their local areas in order to create better neighbourhoods, build skills and job prospects, and live and work in a greener way.
The organisation has worked on thousands of environmental improvement projects across the region since 1985, and to help mark its special milestone, it will be holding a family activity day between 11am and 3pm onSunday 30 August at Pegswood Moor, on the Morpeth to Longhirst Road in Northumberland.
Visitors will be able to try their hand at a range of different activities, including felt making, paper crafts and green woodworking, and there will also be walking trails to follow around Pegswood Moor, which is a restored former surface mine for which Groundwork North East & Cumbria will shortly be taking management responsibility.
Representatives from Bedlington Community Allotment Association and the Heighley Gate Garden Centre will also be taking part in the activity day, which the Groundwork team is hoping will encourage more North East families to make better use of the many outdoor facilities and environments available to them across the region, and to reap the health and recreational benefits that they offer.
Groundwork North East & Cumbria works in partnership with landowners, businesses, public bodies and local community groups to deliver positive sustainable change, and provides training in countryside management skills to enable sites to become self-sustaining under the supervision of local people.
Local programmes and services are tailored to the needs of partners and communities in each place, with the goal of making a positive difference to local people’s lives being the common thread that runs through them all activities.
Leanne Shipley, Project Officer at Groundwork North East & Cumbria, says: “Our region has some amazing outdoor places and spaces, many of which we’ve been directly involved with creating, improving and managing, and families have so much to gain by getting outside together and exploring everything that’s on offer in their local communities and beyond.
“Our free family activity day will give people the chance to try out a whole range of new activities, and to find out more about the work we’re doing right across the North East and Cumbria, especially on our other nearby projects in Northumberland.
“This will be the first event held at the restored Pegswood Moor site, and it provides a great opportunity for local people to start to reconnect with their community.
“We’re hoping the sun shows its face over the Bank Holiday weekend, and that as many people as possible will be able to join in with our 30th anniversary celebrations at our family activity day.”
For more information on the Groundwork North East & Cumbria family activity day, call 01670 514 876 or via leanne.shipley@groundwork.