‘Thank you!’ to all our volunteers

Gordon Dyne

As a big thank you to all the volunteers who give their time to help wildlife around Rushcliffe, the South Notts Local Group of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust organised a volunteer social at the Edwalton Golf Club in March.

The Wilwell Farm Cutting reserve work party on parade!

Some 74 people from a variety of local nature conservation groups came – from the Rushcliffe Barn Owl Project to the Friends of Sharphill Wood and the Wilford Claypits Work Party to the West Bridgford Scouts – covering a diverse range of skills: work party members, bird ringers, wildlife recorders, fund-raisers, helpers at summer fetes and in the ‘back office’.

Stephanie Hilborne OBE, Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts, gave a keynote speech about the value of volunteering. However the real point of the evening was to bring together the volunteers from all parts of the Borough, to renew old acquaintances and strike up new ones.

The social was kindly funded by Rushcliffe Borough Council as part of its support for the Rushcliffe Nature Conservation Strategy and also by East Midlands Airport as part of their community programme.

Most of our activities depend on volunteer teams, such as Wilwell reserve work party (pictured), who collectively put in about 750 hours per year. It really was a pleasure to say “Thank you!” for all that effort.