In November we said goodbye to ‘Van Damme’, our old, green, mechanical friend 😢
With Van Damme we have transformed more than 300 overgrown gardens, and worked with more than 50 volunteers we have trained up to become proficient gardeners, and to see them move into or closer to employment ☺️
We need a new van to take the place of our green van as soon as possible!
We have a growing waiting list of people to help, and we need your help to raise what we need to buy a good, reliable and life-changing van for our ROC Garden project.
| Transforming Gardens, Transforming Lives |
ROC Garden
ROC Garden is a volunteer based project that:
- Helps the unemployed towards employment
- Helps people look after overgrown gardens
- Creates employment opportunities for volunteers we train through offering regular garden services
Our green van helped us to begin making this dream a reality in Blackpool.
With an incredible team of gardeners, we have been able to grow our capacity to help people with regular maintenance from just 30, to now over 300 gardens a year!
Our team has grown! In the last 2 years we have seen over 50 different volunteers join us on work-placements with the vast majority moving on into paid employment in other work places! Even within our team, through ROC Garden services we have created paid employment for 10 of these volunteers, and we intend to create more!
As part of our service to the local communities around Blackpool, Fylde, Wyre and Preston, we offer lots of new volunteering opportunities to help people to move closer to the workplace, but we also maintain and revitalise a number of under used green spaces too!
At this time of year, our vans become quieter with fewer grass cuts to do, but busier as we deliver a bit of Christmas cheer instead.
And with COVID-19 present this Christmas, we want to use our vans to deliver presents of a different kind, including hampers, food parcels, medical supplies, and whatever we can to help as many people who need help this Christmas!
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NOTE: but if we could raise enough money to buy a new or 2nd hand van, (as team leader) I would be willing to dress up for an entire month in some crazy costumes to celebrate the good-will of our incredible community and put some big smiles on faces as we drive by and work on people’s gardens
Anything you can give will go a long way!
It’s a big target, but with this amount we can buy a van that will go the distance, and with the support of our crowd, customers and some local businesses, we could do ‘Van Damme’ proud and carry on his legacy 😇
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