Earlier this year, British Airways held a competition for their staff called BApprentice. This was based on the BBC series whereby two teams representing a charity each obtained articles and services and then auctioned these off. Aid For Children was priviledged to be asked to be one of the two charities, and the money raised was to be used to landscape the back garden of Casa Soarelui. We are most grateful to British Airways and our team to raise money for this project.
During March and April, plans were drawn for the back garden along with a listing the materials that would be required. These were subsequently ordered. Several teams were recruited to fly out and turn the plan into reality. Our plans were nearly dashed by the volcanic ash cloud which put a stop to all commercial aviation out of the UK.
Our plans were that all materials would be assembled at our good friends AMG North Weald to be loaded onto an artic lorry on Wednesday 21st April and a team would meet it by flying out on Saturday the 24th. By the Tuesday, we had made arrangements to hire a minibus to drive overland to meet the lorry which was due to arrive the following Monday. In the end, British Airways flew the team on the Saturday and the lorry was met as planned.
The majority of the garden will be block paved, with two lines of mature trees down the centre of the garden leading to a water feature. There will be two areas of artifical grass to break up the colour and allow picnicing, and two pergolas to provide shade during the summer months. Additional seating will be provided and there will be areas for plants and two rose beds. Soft fruit will be grown along the back wall.
After two days of hard work the trees have been planted and the first part of the block paving has been laid.
During the first week, the team were really pleased to see Vlad. Vlad had visited Casa Soarelui some years ago and it was really nice that he and his family returned to help out with our project.
Our thanks to British Airways, AMG North Weald for their Fright Forwarding help, Builder Depot at New Southgate who supplied the tools, timber and other hardware, Gardens for Life at Bell Bar for the Design of the Garden and Vectair Systems Ltd who supply Hygiene products for Casa Soarelui
By the end of June the back garden was completed and was used by the patients during the summer. By early autumn, the trees and shrubs had established themselves.
Work now has to start on a storage building so that the lorry containers can be removed from the site.