Help to RENOVATE our Community Animal Park & Building

We have some amazing news to share with you all!

We are aware that we have been a little quiet recently, but believe me, we have been working hard behind the scenes and we can now publicly announce that.....

Our Community Animal Park and Building are now financially secure!

BUT that is only the tip of a very large iceberg, and please be assured that every penny raised so far is being used to begin initial emergency repairs to try and prevent our building deteriorating further into disrepair...... It is imperative that we still continue with our fundraising efforts to help us move swiftly into phase 2 of our community project, so PLEASE keep giving and I'll tell you all about how we intend to do this...

We have formed a new Community Group, called Stonebroom Community Hub for Outdoor and Occupational Learning.... Stonebroom Community Hub, for short! We are a dedicated team of volunteers, some of whom belong to SCVG too, who are taking over the lease of the building and will be committed to fund raising to renovate the building into the Community Outdoor Learning Centre we have wanted for so long. We'll be applying for funding from anywhere we can to help us to do this as quickly as possible. We are a totally not for profit organisation, so any funds that are raised will be directed straight back into the business of getting the building up and running!

We are very excited to be moving into this next phase and please be assured, all the money you have so generously donated will give us a good start to begin to make the building water tight over the winter. For anyone who has come down to the Animal Park recently, you will have seen that we already have scaffolding erected on the AP side of the building. This scaffolding has been generously loaned to us, at no cost by Paul and Jodie from Shirland and Paul gave us a days work for free to put the scaffolding up for us at the beginning of November. Work to try and fix the very leaky flat roofing has begun , but upon removing what was left of the cladding on the side of the dormer windows, a huge amount of rotten wood was discovered, where the roof has been leaking for the past 20 + years; this rot has unfortunately infiltrated into some of the roof timbers, which will have to be replaced. Mo, a local roofer, has generously donated a fair amount of time, working with my sons Sam and Paul (who are both an integral part of the Stonebroom Community Hub Group), to try and fix this before winter sets in.

So, I'm sure you can all understand, we are only on the very bottom rung of a very tall ladder, as far as renovation of the building is concerned, so if ANYONE can offer time, resources, expertise or experience in the way of replacing rotten timbers, we would very much appreciate some advice, support, funding and maybe a few hours of your valuable time to help us get this sorted before the rain starts again!

I will leave the history of how our Animal Park has evolved in this story, so anyone who is new to our GFM page, can learn about our journey over the past 8 years or so...

"Our Animal Park was established in 2017 initially as part of the education of the Forest School learners at Stonebroom Primary and Nursery School, but it has now evolved into an integral part of our community. People from near and far regularly come to visit our pigs, goats, chickens and ducks as well as varying amounts of chicks and ducklings which hatch naturally every spring. Everyone has their favourite animal and bags of fruit and veg scraps are eagerly carried down through the woods on a daily basis, by members of the public, especially on a Sunday afternoon, to feed Hamish, Donut, Dottie, Horace and Olive our 5 resident pigs. Children (and some adults!) squeal with delight as they throw their carrots and apples through the fence and watch as Dottie tries to pick up as much food as she can before running away to a corner of the paddock to consume her feast quickly before the boys try to take it off her; Horace will sit for his food on command, trotter raised in anticipation, mouth wide open, patiently waiting for the tasty morsel on offer to land, as long as it is thrown with some degree of accuracy; Olive squeals loudly and persistently to make sure she is not forgotten, as her paddock is the farthest away from the woodland path... Our goats will bleat pitifully and jump up at the fence, in the vain hope that they might just be allowed the odd bit of carrot or apple before Horace comes along and steals it out of their mouths. The chickens and ducks have free range of the Animal Park during the summer months and they are also a constant source of entertainment for any visitors as they run around in their chosen cliques (or maybe that should be 'clucks'!) with youngsters in tow, learning their place in the pecking order.

To anyone who regularly visits our woodland and Animal Park, all of this will be very familiar, but to those of you who have not visited, I hope this will give you some insight into how much fun, entertainment, hilarity and therefore hugely positive mental health and well being benefits, our animals give to the many, many visitors who come and spend time in this peaceful (unless you have forgotten to feed Olive ....) and natural woodland environment. The woodland itself provides a tranquil and relaxing safe space for everyone to enjoy, explore and spend time freely and as previously mentioned, the Animal Park also plays an extremely important part in our weekly Forest School sessions, as our learners quickly develop an understanding of how to care for and nurture our animals to ensure they are all kept happy, safe and well (children and animals!), while encouraging the children to gain confidence and self esteem by spending quality time in natural surroundings.

After your contributions have helped to secure the Animal Park, we will begin work on raising money to refurbish the adjoining derelict building to develop it into a Community Outdoor Learning Centre which will eventually bring massive benefits and opportunities for all."

Please share this page with as many people as you can..

THANK YOU!