Last week we were thrilled to have the support of Barclays, YES Scotland and our own volunteers to clear out the garden outside the cafe area of the Beatson and its main courtyard.
Day one we had nine hard working Barclays volunteers clear out a heavily weeded area outside the cafe by helping scrape away and tear out weeds and moss in the pathways, while also cleaning the benching which will be varnished at a future date. In the Courtyard much of the overgrown planting was ripped out again by the fantastic Barclays volunteers, who got stuck in making over 80 bags of rubbish! The young team from YES took away all the old benching for refurbishment and built up a tool shed kindly donated by Barclays. After a hard day’s work the difference was uncanny.
Day two saw a fresh team of volunteers come in who also had a busy day ahead. Our volunteers got right in straight away by removing all the rubbish to the skips, weeding the courtyard site, then cleaning the granite feature, decking and windows facing into the courtyard. After all this they helped carry 75 bags of compost and carried them back into the courtyard. (Who said volunteering wasn't hard work!)
After the two days of hard work, an incredible difference could be seen in the courtyards and we are so grateful for everyone’s wonderful efforts over the two days. We'd like to say a big thank you to Glasgow Tree Lovers Society for providing bulbs and shrubs which will take us through the winter and provide lots of colour into next spring.
A special thank you must also go to Barclays who supported us with a donation of £500 which bought all the tools, equipment and planting. We truly appreciate everyone’s efforts and Beatson Cancer Charity hope to continue developing the courtyards for patients and staff to use more frequently use in the future. Thank you everyone again.