Cerebral Palsy Cymru & National Trust Cymru team up to create new wellbeing garden and celebrate Blossom Watch

 

To launch the partnership and celebrate the National Trust’s annual #BlossomWatch campaign, Bedwyr, Aman, Imogen, and Mary, along with their siblings, planted two blossom trees and hundreds of snowdrops in the arboretum at Dyffryn Gardens near Cardiff. 

Mary, who is eleven years old, was thrilled to be a part of such a special occasion. 

This is my first time to Dyffryn Gardens. I have been getting my hands dirty planting trees and snowdrops. It has been a really fun day. I want to come back again and we are going to see them blossom every year!"

young girl and mum planting a tree

 

We are thrilled to announce that, as part of our partnership, National Trust Cymru will be helping to transform the outside of our new children's centre over the next few months by creating a new wellbeing garden for our families and staff members. 

Rebecca Williams, Assistant Director, National Trust Cymru said:

The pandemic showed us the importance of having access to nature and the outdoors, from gardens and parks to green spaces in workplaces and within communities. The Covid-19 crisis also highlighted significant inequalities in access to nature within urban areas.

Working with partners, we aim to increase access to green spaces in and around urban areas, so that more people are within easy reach of quiet places for reflection with wide open skies.

Through the blossom campaign, we’re able to make this a reality and have already planted 16 blossom trees in local schools, health centres, and urban areas across Wales. We’re looking forward to creating a new green space at Cerebral Palsy Cymru’s centre later this autumn to bring nature and beauty to children, families, and staff”.

woman with child on lap planting

 

Our family support officer, Glenys Evans, also attended the tree planting at Dyffryn Gardens along with Emily Anthony, a member of our fundraising team, and Heather Holgate, one of our Occupational Therapists, 

Glenys was delighted to be a part of the launch of this unique and special partnership.  

We as a charity are absolutely thrilled to be working with the National Trust in this unique partnership throughout 2022. The blossom tree planting at Dyffryn Gardens, with some of the families that have used our services, was the perfect way to celebrate the partnership and all of the children enjoyed participating in this unique experience. We’d also like to thank our long-time ambassador Lucy Own for putting us in touch with the National Trust team in the first instance. We look forward to seeing how this relationship blossoms during 2022 and once again thank all the National Trust team for their kind support.”

a group of children planting bulbs

 

National Trust Cymru will also be providing free access passes to our 350 families right across Wales, which will help the conservation charity to review some of the accessibility challenges at places they care for. 

These passes will give our families the opportunity to discover their local Trust places, with the ask for families to feedback on accessibility challenges.  

Rebecca Williams continues:

Visiting your favourite Trust places should be an enjoyable and inclusive experience for everyone and we are proud to be working with Cerebral Palsy Cymru to review some of the barriers at places we care for.

We strive to meet the different needs and expectations of our supporters and work hard to improve accessibility, however we recognise we have a long way to go, but we’re determined to be for everyone, for ever.”

a woman smiling at a young boy

 

Our ambassador, Lucy Owen, was also able to join us for the planting and had a wonderful time chatting to our families and helping them with the planting. Lucy was drawn to the National Trust’s #BlossomWatch campaign when writing her book ‘Flower Girl’ and the partnership blossomed from there.

Lucy Owen said:

It is pure magic for me to see these two brilliant charities working together and doing something so wonderful. We’ve learned during the pandemic how nature can help us all through difficult times and the importance of being outdoors.

I’m so pleased that National Trust Cymru sites are being made accessible for everyone, and I can’t wait to see the blossom trees bloom in the new Cerebral Palsy Cymru centre wellbeing garden. I feel very proud that something so special has grown from small seeds planted in ‘Flower Girl”.

a group photo of families by a tree