Very Young Friends of West Bank Park: September 2014

Who are the VYFWBP?

We are a friendly community group, run by parents, who meet every Thursday morning in West Bank Park, York. Whatever the weather, school hols included, we spend a couple of hours in the woods and meadows of the Park, doing nature games and crafts, building or making things with materials we find, telling stories and singing songs.

We are open to all - with a contribution of £1 a family (to cover basic equipment) - so if you want to join us, see you on Thursday at 10am at the statue of Queen Victoria, at the top of the Rose Walk. (Bring something simple to share at snack time.)

For more information contact Elly at: westbankparkkids@gmail.com

Sunday 21 September 2014

A reminder that the simplest ideas are usually the best! No instructions needed, the children knew exactly what to do with a bucket of mud, some cake cases and a park full of interesting berries and leaves at our Mud Cafe!

Some news. As many of you know, the Young Friends have also become the Old Friends of West Bank Park. We have a web site: http://www.westbankpark.org/ and facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/westbankparkyork and if you would like to send in park pictures or some comments etc please do as they need filling up a bit!

As well as technological enhancements, we are starting to tackle the most needy areas of the park. At the moment, I am busy trying to save the beloved Truck in the playground. This was scheduled for demolition but the council have agreed to replace the side panel (where most of the damage was) instead. Will keep you updated. Once its fixed, we plan a bumper painting day to tart up as much of the equipment as we can. Let me know if you would like to get involved!

On the work front, we are drawing up a monthly "Learn in the Park" schedule. We'll kick this off with a pond clearance session on THURS OCT 23. This will make up the crafts activity section of our Young Friends session, in other words, everything will be the same with snack time, songs etc, but we'll de camp to the pond area (And a couple of kind mums will entertain the children in the playground) to join other volunteers to brush up the pond area. Catherine Heinemeyer will lead this and she is a bit of an expert so listen out for fascinating facts! Meet at the statue as normal, and if you are late, we will be by the pond! PLEASE WEAR SUITABLE CLOTHES!!!

The Community Arts Project is finished!

We've drawn, we've etched in clay, we've hung leaf sculptures in nets, we've looked at the park through coloured polythene, we've written down our memories and drawn rude pictures....and a beautiful mosaic has now been made! It has been officially unveiled and will shortly be appearing on the wall of the office block in the Park. You will see much that you recognise and you may even have been one of the team of all ages who helped make the mosaic itself. Well done and thanks to our patient, creative, hardworking artists Mary Passeri and Colin Widdup!