2012, a Yearly Review

Produced by Creativeconnection.co.uk, for Sustainable Stories exhibition, CUBE Gallery, Manchester, 3-6 November 2012 (Mistra Urban Futures/ESRC/SURF Centre, University of Salford).

January

We began 2012 by making two friends that are now at the heart of everything that we are about; Platt Fields Park and the Cooperative Movement.

The work we had been doing with the Cooperative Enterprise Hub came to a conclusion in January as we were formalised as a ‘Society for the Benefit of the Community’

After having our 2011 event in the park we wanted to become more involved in the work the Friends of Platt Fields do in improving the space. This began in January when we went along to be part of the ‘Once A Month’ volunteer day.

February

This month saw our first fundraiser of the year. We headed over to Trof to unleash the magnificence of the Envirolution Art Auction. It was once again a hugely successful night with the Trof staff saying it was the best night they had ever worked.

March

The work of the Envirolution Pop Up Farm began in March as we took it along to our first Primary School in Chorlton and the Chrolton Big Green Festival.

We were also exploring what the aims of the event had become and how these could be grown. We came up with Envirolution Community Café and had our first experience with crowdfunding.

Community Cafe promotional video

April

We continued to get busy in Platt Fields, where we were now doing a weekly session to prepare the Shakespearan Gardens and the Eco Garden for summer planting.

May, June and July

This was the event build up for the event, which is always busy with meetings, art workshops and lots of going around telling people how fantastic the day will be. One highlight was getting invited to speak on the morning show of BBC Radio Manchester.

We also, had time to head over to the Beatherder Festival to run the Pop Up Farm.
@ Beatherder Festival, Ribble Valley, 29th June

21st July, Plat Fields Park

We hosted Envirolution 2012 in the Eco Garden at Platt Fields Park.

August

August allowed a well deserved rest, with a few of us going over to Just So Festival to entertain some families.

Spetember

Our gaze was firmly back in Platt Fields in September as we looked into helping the Friends of Platt Fields clean the lake with Morff and their Mud Balls, Opened the Boathouse to Critical Mass and supported the Save the Skatepark campaign.

All this and we still managed to help run the children’s area at Festival No.6

October

October was a quiet month, just a little outing to the South Manchester Environmetal Forum.

November

Our first ever AGM

December

Our Christmas festivities began with a Fundraiser at Dulcimer Bar in Chorlton. We finished the year we happy thoughts looking back at what we had achieved. It was a very busy but exciting year.