Over the past couple of years, we have had a huge amount of support in our lovely Fog Lane Park, that help comes in many forms, from the council’s Parks team, Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors, and of course the public, we greatly appreciate this help, without it the park would not look as good at it does.
Every Wednesday morning Pam and Angela are busily planting and taking care of flower beds all over the park, the rose garden and beds next to the pond are their fine work, but you can see their dedicated work all over the park. Pam is on the committee (if you are interested in joining the committee please contact us).
It may seem surprising that a public park requires a volunteer team like us, but the council don’t have time to apply for grants for local parks, and we care deeply that our park continues to cater for as many people as possible, we work with the council to apply for things but often it comes down to people like you to make a difference.
In 2019 we had volunteers from Manchester University, Manchester City Council, Friends of Fog Lane and local volunteers help paint and sort out the Pavilion in the park so it could be reopened as a café, this went fairly well, included a flat-pack day where we had to put together all of the furniture for the café.
Volunteering does not just involve helping all the time, as a park we rely on support from volunteers to run activities in the park like the Orienteering Day, Christmas tree lighting, Eggs hunts, newly established Fairy hunt and many more from the past and more to come. We often announce the support we need on social media and of course will do so on the newly established website too if you want to help come along and join us.
This Sunday there was a litter pick organised by John Cameron (Liberal Democrats) and his team, they managed with the help of over 50 volunteers including local Labour councillors, to make a huge dent in the litter that has been mounting up during the Covid crisis. If you want to run an event like this we have litter pickers etc and can accommodate most events, we require a months warning ideally.
The Friends of Fog Lane are here to serve, we do our best to raise funds, run events and keep the public informed. We are so pleased that the park has been a retreat over the past few months for so many users. If you want to see something happen in the park, let us know, and we will see what we can do.
There are plans to run some new events in the coming year, to hear more about them come to one of our meetings, or keep an eye on social media.