Community clean-up in Mayow Park

 Our community litter-picking events in Mayow Park are enjoyable social gatherings with a serious purpose.

We aim to collect as much litter as possible – of course. But we also aim to help wildlife living in the park by removing items that could cause them harm including plastic debris and wet wipes.  This is rubbish left by people, sometimes carelessly, but at other times   perhaps assuming that someone else will clear it up.

Our most recent event on 4^th August 2022 was during the school holiday and a great opportunity for families to join us. The weather was warm and sunny. Ideal. We met near the cafe and agreed which areas are most in need of litter clearance.  We got into groups and off we went.

Our local PCSO Andrea represented the Perry Vale police and worked with some children who were excited to see her as they know her from her visits to local schools.

PCSO Andrea with her team of helpers

We collected 14 bags of rubbish plus bits of garden fencing, metal items and a cushion. There were the usual items such as sweet and food packaging, paper, card, wet wipes, cans, glass bottles, plastic bottles, cigarette stubs and plastic covers from disposable drinking straws. 

Some of the volunteers

One of the volunteers did an awesome job of collecting rubbish in the fenced-off area adjacent to Mayow Road and which is normally locked. Our helpers were 8 children, 13 adults and 1 dog. The photo shows a few of those willing workers.

Thank you to Glendale staff for providing rubbish bags and litter-picking sticks and collecting the rubbish pile when we had finished. Thank you to the park users who volunteered to help and to the parents for bringing children to take part.

 Councillor Susan Wise joined us after the litter pick for entertainment by Nzinga Dance near the children’s playground. This was arranged by Nancy at Lewisham Council. Nzinga Dance is a performing arts organisation bringing African and African Caribbean dance to audiences. The two dancers wore traditional costume, played traditional drums and music. It was tempting for some of the audience to join in with the dancing. This was entertainment for young and old while a few children queued to have their faces painted. What a treat it was.

Thank you to Nancy for these lovely photos.

Audience participation

Nzinga Dance in action

Keep Mayow Tidy (and follow the regs!)

 Words by Pippa Moss; Photos A Sheridan

Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British Spring Clean, usually held in March, was of course postponed this year – a pandemic arrived! FOMP had planned a litter picking event for it, which we had to cancel. The postponed GB Spring Clean happened in September instead. Friends of Mayow Park couldn’t organise anything big and official with all the social distancing regulations so we just chose a date and gathered six volunteers. It fell under the permitted Lewisham Covid volunteering category of ‘tending and managing habitats’. Our intention was therefore to clear the woodland and grassland habitats within the park of littered items and make them safer for wildlife. We were able to let Glendale (the team that manages the park on behalf of Lewisham Council) and the Safer Neighbourhood Team know the date so they could separately, but on the same date, be in the park too. Glendale helpfully provided bags, picker sticks and took away the litter!

It went very well. Between the 3 groups we collected 24 bags of litter, a random Hoover and a teddy bear as well! We headed into the bushes and woodland areas that we could access so it was a thorough job! Extra point for me for managing to get a sore shoulder from also carrying around a large heavy hand sanitiser bottle in my handbag!

We were all shocked by the amount of wet wipes - they overtook Haribo sweet packets by far this year. These wipes will sit around for years, they don’t decompose and they certainly don’t help the wildlife in the park.      

 I think we all know wet wipes have their uses. I used to pride myself in the baby days of what I could clean up with just one wet wipe - and I always disposed of it responsibly. The fact we probably collected 200 of them shows they are being used excessively and carelessly.

                     

Next litter pick I plan to collect recycling separately - it is rather depressing when it all gets lumped together. It might involve some bag juggling but I think it will be worth it - cans and bottles are a big part of what we collect.

The community has really been enjoying Mayow Park during these last 6 months - we know this space has been really valuable to all of us to escape our homes, which we have spent so much time in. To be honest after all these months of heavy use, the litter pick could have been a much greater challenge - it just shows that most people really are caring for the park. There is also a growing awareness that any bags left neatly tied next to the bins with the best of intention, do in fact end up shredded by foxes. They need to be taken home.

Anyway the great thing is that there are always willing volunteers to help on these litter picks, and anyone who has never used a litter picking stick always states how great they are to use! I’m still trying to find a handbag friendly one... see me soon on Dragon’s Den with my telescopic handbag litter picker invention!

Pippa Moss September 2020

Tree Dressing 30th November

Friends of Mayow Park invite you to our event:

Tree Dressing

A winter celebration
of our orchard

Saturday 30th November

10am – midday

Decorate our trees using items from nature or by writing a message on fabric.

We’ll have some, but please do bring any
fabric or ribbons to hang in the trees.

❖             Refreshments

❖             Winter singalong!

❖             Tree trail for children

MEET AT THE ORCHARD

(near the tennis courts)

  Free event - donations welcome.

For more information or to offer help, email friendsofmayowpark@ymail.com

CLEANUP IN MAYOW PARK

This article was written by Daniella Levene  from CleanUp UK who gave permission for us to post it.

Megan & Paulette

The community event  was organised by Paulette and Megan  at Lewisham Plus  http://plus-services.org/  and supported by Daniella.    

Megan with Lewisham councillors

Most of us litter pick because we are concerned about the environment, but group litter picks have so many benefits aside from the environmental one and you don’t even have to litter pick to take part! You could help sign people in, sort equipment, bake a cake, chat to passers-by, organise, design a poster, make some tea, or just walk around for company because you care and want to be sociable. Last Saturday’s pick in Mayow Park (14^th September) was a great example of how meaningful they can be.

The PLUS pickers had their first successful pick in the summer in Folkstone Gardens and were keen for more. As Rob Agrawal, Head of Service at PLUS said, “Litter picking is such a rewarding thing to do as everybody is able to participate to some extent and the results are obvious and immediate’.

One participant, Megan, enjoyed it so much and wanted to organise one closer to home. With help from her fabulous support worker Paulette, we met Alona, Chair of the Friends of Mayow Park, who was happy to support but at first wasn’t sure if the park needed a clean. Mayow Park on first appearances is very clean and it is well looked after; it has a park keeper (Ainsley) twice a week, an active Friends’ group, and is clearly loved by its many users.

However, like most well used parks, when you start to really look you will see the gleam of plastic, perhaps a bit of straw wrapper taken by the wind, or a plastic bottle deliberately chucked in a bush (out of sight, out of mind), or the thousands of cigarettes (it is estimated that 4.5 trillion cigarettes butts are littered each year), which most smokers aren’t even aware are harmful.

 After our walkabout to check out Mayow Park and see what we could do a date was set. Megan and Paulette contacted their friends, put up posters and with some support from me and Glendale everything was in place for the day, with fingers crossed for sunny skies. Thankfully the weather delivered, and it was beautiful day!

These young people arrived in the park and wanted to help Daniella 

In all 29 people took part, including three wonderful young pickers, as their guardian Jill stated, “They walk through the park on the way to and from school and come every weekend, so it was good to see them having fun while helping the environment and the park they love.”

We were also joined by councillors Susan Wise, John Paschoud and Jacq Paschoud and,from NDTi, Madeline Cooper-Ueki who inspired PLUS to get involved after hearing her talk about social inclusivity, as she surmised about the day, “Communities and friendships are built when we come together to do things that matter in our neighbourhoods. All too often people with learning disabilities are seen as recipients of help from those around them. Megan’s role in making this park cleanup such a success captures how the opposite is the case. Communities benefit most when everyone is included!”

Cllr John Paschoud with young helpers

A total of 10 bags of rubbish was cleared, not the biggest haul but that's not really the point. Every piece collected is one less harming our environment and wildlife AND OF EQUAL IMPORTANCE, those involved are a little bit more connected.

Young helper knows where to find litter

Young helper picks up litter

The PLUS pickers are keen to get involved in more community litter picks. If you'd like to join them or organise one, please get in touch.

LINKS TO WEBSITES OF PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS

CleanupUK:   cleanupuk.org.uk  

                       https://www.facebook.com/TheBeautifulBoroughsProject/

               twitter.com/Cleanup_UK

                      instagram.com/cleanup_uk

Lewisham Plus http://plus-services.org/

Rob Agrawal (Head of Service) PLUS (Providence LINC United Services)

6 Belmont Hill, Lewisham, London, SE13 5BD

 
NDTi https://www.ndti.org.uk  

Apple Day is coming soon

The poster below gives an outline of our event on 5th October, starting at 10 am. We'd love to have a few extra volunteers though:

• to help us set up our tables and gazebo, 
• to welcome visitors, 
• to give visitors the chance to taste different varieties of apples and choose their favourite, 
• to point them in the direction of our story teller, 
• to explain the fruit tree identification activity in the orchard
• to provide tea for adults and squash for children   
• 

Come along for a fun morning. 

Get in touch if you would like to help, by sending an email to friendsofmayowpark@ymail.com. 

Community table top sale in the bowls green

By Pippa.
What an amazing day! 
Today we had nearly 40 stalls set up on the Bowls Green in Mayow Park and selling all sorts from toys, books and games through to clothes, jewellery, make-up, plants and cakes.
People had to lug their bits from their cars parked outside the park, but it's not too far and people helped each other.

FOMP stall starting to set up. (Image by Pippa)

The stalls looked great in neat rows, thanks to forward planning by Darren A.  We opened at 10 a.m and from that time through to1p.m we had a steady flow of people. Over 200 adults paid the 50p entrance - kids of course were free.
The FOMP stall was selling donations from people and telling visitors what FOMP is and does. I think it definitely raised awareness of who we are just by us hosting it.
The weather was perfect - not too hot for all the setting up but warm enough that lots of people were in the park anyway. In fact there was a school fun run and I made sure I ran over to ask parents 'Please come over after your run'.

More stalls setting up

Throughout the event people asked if we'll have another one -  definitely something for us to think about. It's not a huge money maker for FOMP due to liability insurance costs but it did raise some funds and will certainly consider holding another event.
We thank everyone who supported us to make this happen. We hope everyone had fun as they looked pretty happy, certainly the people who grabbed great bargains!

Come to our Table top sale 19th May

By Pippa

TABLE TOP (or rug!) SALE IN THE PARK SUNDAY 19TH MAY 2019
We are hoping for a great community event, a chance for people to make some money with a bit of fundraising too for the park!  37 stalls booked for Sunday - I cannot believe it! FOMP might even do better than break even - very exciting. Keep spreading the word and do come along! Thanks x

TREE DRESSING DECEMBER 2018

Article by Pippa Moss.

On Saturday 1st December we were faced with a very soggy morning for our tree dressing event and while we couldn’t quite face putting the gazebo up in the rain we didn’t want to cancel.

We would have had to have the storyteller Rich Sylvester in the bowling green huts but the weather actually got a bit better and we found a really sheltered spot near the bowling green with great tree coverage so we just based ourselves right there on the path and Rich made a dry den in the trees. 

Dry den for story telling. Photo Pippa

He did a few story sessions with some groups of all weather families and people did stop to write lovely messages on our fabric strips. Many were inspired by a great tree poem Alona had found with phrases such as ‘stress reliever, shelter for owls etc’. 

Poem found on Internet. Poet unnamed

We ended up dressing the yew tree behind us but also people walked down to the orchard to tie some up there too.

Of course it wasn’t as busy as usual in the park but it felt like we were saying thank you to the trees and that felt right to me - I get a lot from Mayow Park’s trees - there’s many a morning when I return from a rushed school run and look at the trees and just give a big sigh of ‘thanks for being here and looking lovely’. But they look a little less lovely in the winter so dressing them is a good idea!

Some decorative messages. Photo Alona

Tree message. Photo Pippa

Around midday, a talented local dog walker called Dave came along with his guitar and after a few cups of mulled wine it felt very normal to be having a fun sing-along next to the Bowling Green with confused runners trying to dodge through us!

Mulled wine time. Photo Pippa

Dave led a great sing-along on the theme of trees, accompanied by his guitar. He also included Christmas songs   Jingle Bells and White Christmas

                                                                         Photo: Alona

                                                                          Photo: Alona

Singing rounded off our tree dressing event     Photo: Sarah

Alona and I also gave an interview to Emma from CPRE who is filming and interviewing Friends groups. She said it was so nice to chat to people who were so smiley as they talked about their Friends group. I can’t think why on a wet Saturday in a park with a mulled wine inside me and poetic trees words buzzing in my head I wouldn’t be smiling??

APPLE DAY 2018

This article, by Pippa,  first appeared in Sydenham Society News, Winter 2018.

Mayow Park’s annual Apple Day on Saturday 6 October started fabulously – grey Autumnal weather, but visitors and passers-by soon arrived when they saw tasty apple slices being proffered to try.

We set up in the orchard (opposite the tennis courts) looking very festive and apple-themed. Sadly, we couldn’t offer any apples actually grown in the orchard – I wonder where they went? Hopefully into a nice crumble somewhere. However, there were plenty of different varieties to try (challenge: five are hidden in the wordsearch below), all available at your local greengrocer or supermarket!

As always in Mayow Park, a great feeling of community spirit and support surrounded the stall. Around 60 people stopped to say hi or join an activity. Rich Sylvester, the excellent storyteller who has joined us before, created a circus feel with his parachute tent tied up in a big tree, with lots of children sitting on rugs listening attentively. Rich used puppets and props to bring his stories to life, and the children added sound effects with sticks and singing.

At the stall, some children coloured in apples and took part in the apple and pear hunt around the orchard for a prize treat. Meanwhile, the grown-ups seemed delighted at the offer of a (free) warming cup of tea. Then it all got a bit soggy. Then really very wet, and it was time to abort. Like so many family camping trips it was a matter of trying to get everything quickly away into the dry. What hero volunteers we had, smiling through the lashing rain, not at all resentful about all those lovely blue sky days in the previous weeks. Great spirit and very British. And we do grow good apples (maybe because of the rain?).

Mayow Park’s next event is Tree Dressing on Saturday 1 December during National Tree Week. Based on an ancient custom that celebrates the life-giving properties of trees, we hope you will join us to decorate some of the wonderful trees in our park. For details of this event visit Friends of Mayow Park on Facebook or email friendsofmayowpark@ymail.com

R	Y	X	C	T	Y	L	N
C	U	O	P	N	P	R	G
J	X	C	X	R	U	K	A
O	R	N	S	B	K	X	L
T	Z	F	E	E	J	Z	A
U	K	A	Z	Q	T	M	P
V	R	O	B	J	I	N	D
B	C	R	Y	Z	K	O	M

Can you find the names of some apple varieties in this word search? Look for these:

Gala, Robjin, Russet, Cox, Braeburn

Our volunteers with apple varieties to taste

Our storyteller with audience