A group of children from a city primary school have played their part in bringing more wildlife to a local park – but were devastated when their efforts were vandalised a few weeks later.
Michelle Quintrell, who is chair of the Victoria Park Community Project had appealed for help from the community to improve the environment of the popular park.
“we have done our very best to involve the local community”
When Lucy Mann, a teacher at St Andrew’s Primary School in Citadel Road, heard about the appeal, she arranged for pupils to add their support as part of her Year Three curriculum.
On a recent visit, the children not only filled the park’s train shaped planter with bee loving flowers, they also placed some unusual bird feeders and bug hotels they had made in class. But without a doubt their crowning glory was a stunning butterfly mosaic now gracing a park wall.
Sadly, sometime overnight between July 16 and 17 a number of the bird feeders were damaged, flowers uprooted and the trainshaped planter was also vandalised.
Lucy said:
“Some of the children came into school and said they had been playing in the park the night before and discovered the damage. They were really upset and some of them were crying as well. It’s so sad that all their hard work has been spoiled by this mindless action.”
Lucy said:
“The children loved creating everything, and my sincere thanks go to Topps Tiles and Johnstone’s for paint. It was a heartwarming community effort from start to finish, just so disappointing that it ended like this.
Michelle said:
“I would love to have had Lucy as my teacher. The children were buzzing with enthusiasm, so we are all gutted that their efforts have been so upset by what has happened.
“We have been told that the damage was caused by a group of very young children – possibly only seven or eight years old themselves. We will be checking the CCTV at the cafe in the park to see if they can be identified.
“We will also be reporting it to the police and e-mailing local primary schools whose pupils might have been involved. It’s difficult to imagine what the motive was. At the end of the day it’s criminal damage, but there are obviously a lot more serious crimes for the police to deal with.
“Since we launched the campaign to improve the park we have done our very best to involve the local community – and schools have been a big part of this.
“We are able to supply materials if the school can dedicate the time with their pupils as part of the curriculum – just like St Andrew’s Primary did.”
She said that thankfully the mosaic butterfly – which had taken many hours to produce – had escaped the damage.
“Everything can be repaired and restored,”
said Michelle.
“It’s just such a shame that youngsters can’t appreciate the value of a great community asset like Victoria Park.
“We have achieved so much since we launched the improvement scheme and we are even more determined to keep going,”
added Michelle.
Family Fun Day
Fund raising is an important element for the Park project and Michelle said that they are planning another Family Fun Day on August 18 with the aim of raising money in aid of HeartSWell, so that a defibrillator can be provided at the cafe.
Michelle said that there will be plenty for the family to do, include bouncy castle, archery attack, craft stalls, cake stalls, games and a treasure hunt. The event starts at 11am and finishes at 4pm.
“We hope lots of families will come along and enjoy the occasion,”
she said.
