This week we are giving recognition to all the amazing people who are selflessly volunteering to help and support people in their communities by sharing the great work of just some of the amazing volunteers we have at PJA.
In our third article of the week, Catriona Swanson, Active Travel Associate in our Manchester office, shares her volunteering experience:
“I’ve been volunteering with my local park group in Salford – the Friends of Lightoaks Park – for the last three years. In normal (non-pandemic!) times, we hold maintenance sessions in the park every other Sunday. They usually last around three hours and typically involve things like litter picking, pruning, weeding and tree or bulb planting.
We also organise events over the year including a Christmas event with a Santa’s grotto, community picnic and a big summer event. I’ve also managed to meld my day job (active travel) with volunteering by organising a couple of “Big Bike Revival” events where people can come and get their bike repaired for free or try out a range of cargo bikes and adapted cycles.
We have a core group of around 20 volunteers and lots more people who come help on an ad hoc basis (it turns out that kids love litter picking) and several hundred people normally come to our events.
The pandemic has highlighted the value of our local green spaces for physical and mental health so it’s a really good feeling to see the park being used so much and seeing how grateful people are that we have such a lovely space on our doorsteps.
It’s a really good, positive group to be part of and I really value the mental health and wellbeing benefits I get from spending time in the park with my new group of friends. I’m really looking forward to lockdown restrictions lifting so we can get back to our regular maintenance sessions and start organising events again. I have a feeling they will be more popular than ever.”
Find out more about Friends of Lightoaks Park here
For more information on this, or our active travel services, please contact: [email protected]
Catriona Swanson BSc (Hons) MPlan
Catriona has over 12 years’ experience delivering active travel, sustainable transport, regeneration and placemaking schemes in both the public and private sectors. Catriona’s experience includes network planning and concept design as well as overseeing the detailed design and delivery of schemes. She is particularly passionate about inclusive design and creating Healthy Streets.
Read our other Volunteer Recognition Day articles here
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