Festival of Nature in Oakenclough

The Wilmslow Festival of Nature was set up by Transition Wilmslow. We brought a range of  varied exhibits and games to fit the theme of the festival. Our giant Gaia walked around with someone to hold her hand to talk to children about how we need to look after the planet.

We  had a painting table for children to paint a picture of the earth on a calendar and write a ‘promise for the earth’ to take home. People played the ‘guess the carbon footprint’ game, and there was  a visual display board on restoration of peat  bogs with reference to the local very damaged Lindow Moss. We provided recipes for using pumpkins and making a pumpkin facemask and foot scrubs as well as a  surprisingly excellent pumpkin lip balm  that went down a storm!  As always we had our pledge tree  to get people to make a pledge as to how they can live greener lives by reducing their carbon footprint  and a new addition was the spectacular banded climate change scarf attached to the gazebo.  It is from a NFWI pattern that is colour coded to show UK temperature changes from 1919-2021. It always shocks people to see the visual representation of the speed of Climate Change happening now.

The Great Big Green Week in Delamere Forest

We set up a stall in the Forest near to the Visitors Centre. Our aim was to support the Great Big Green Week of the Climate Coalition. We offered a range of activities including the carbon footprint card game, a tree identification quiz with real baby trees, a display about peat bogs, free bee friendly plant seeds and a Pledge Tree. We also provided materials for the children to make Get  Well Cards for Mother Earth, which we collected and sent to the delegates at COP 26 in the form of an eye catching video. The whole day was filled with conversations about the Climate Crisis and what we can all do about it. Gaia, our friendly Mother Earth  giant drew everyone’s eye and brought our stand to the attention of all the walkers passing by.

Show the Love in Stockport Station

We had a stand to promote the Climate Coalition Show the Love initiative and we asked travellers to write on a heart the things they most want to protect from climate change. We also handed out badges saying ” I took the train and saved 40% carbon emissions”
Our stand included recipe cards showing delicious vegetarian recipes with photos, that people photographed with their phones to take away, and a wealth of climate crisis information and advice. Verity, the giant from Shropshire paid a visit and drew a lot of attention to what we were trying to do.

Waterside Rubbish Picks

As part of the Climate Coalition Week of Action, we organised a waterside Plastic Waste pickup walk and several Cheshire WI’s took part. The one in Runcorn including local MP Mike Amesbury and two awesome councillors Norman and Carol Plumpton-Walsh. They picked up 32 bags of rubbish and plastic including two prams! Some members also decorated hessian sacks to brighten the walk and bring home the message that single use plastic is a bad idea.

Show the Love in the Shopping City

We organised an event at the Shopping City and invited people to make, wear and share green hearts to Show the Love for the places, people and life we want to protect from climate change. Activities included seeing the latest drone footage from the Mersey Gateway and learning about the effect that warm seas have on coral. We had climate quiz games, met local environmental champions Cheshire Wildlife and Norton Priory and planted a green heart of wildflower seeds. We had a recycling and reuse stand packed with great ideas and demonstrations. The Cubs joined in and captured all hearts, not just the green ones. More than 300 people turned out to show their love for our planet and enjoy free activities and conversations with local community organisations.

Meres and Mosses Walk

Cheshire Federation members walked around some of the Mosses and Meres of Cheshire to find out more about these invaluable carbon sinks. Pauline Handley and Jean Hill, both members of Fulshaw WI in Wilmslow, went for a walk around Lindow Moss and discovered a fragile and beautiful environment, unique and rare, that is under grave threat which they highlighted to Cheshire Federation. The resulting campaign went across all of Cheshire and was successful in saving the Moss.

The Climate Conversation

We organised a public event to encourage people to talk about climate change. Peel Holdings had a stand and a very informative representative to talk about their wind farm, Viridor brought masses of information about their waste to energy plant and Halton Council had a stand about waste recycling. Oxfam came to display the situation in Africa, and we also had a local urban garden team with widlflower planting and advice. There was a live tree for people to attach pledges on what they will do to reduce their carbon footprint. The tree is now planted at Norton Priory.