Doncaster community memorial garden set to launch with fun packed activity day

Doncaster charity the Eve Merton Dreams Trust has been spearheading the project at The Bridge and Copper Pipe cafe on Barnby Dun Road, opposite Clay Lane Estate, with work to create the new facility ongoing over the last six months.

This Saturday will see the unveiling of the garden at the building – formerly Curlew Middle School – with a raft of activities taking place between 11am and 3pm.

An Evestrust spokesman said: “It’ll be an action packed day, filled to the brim with fun activities, all to celebrate nature, the environment, and the value of volunteering.

“There will be lots of different activities to do, thanks to all our partners.”

Among the events will be a polytunnel building challenge, National Literacy Trust storytelling and illustration, Caged Steel martial arts, Kixx Ball skills and football, Get On Board C.I.C skateboarding and Children’s University and Forest School.

Visitors will also be able to help plant a memorial willow tree.

The garden will support people with learning disabilities to gain employability skills, confidence, and act as a space for them to heal.

Both The Bridge and Copper Pipe care for and work with special needs students and volunteers.

A spokesperson of Cambeth Community Project, organisers behind the Copper Pipe Café, said: “The Memorial Garden will enable a safe, tranquil space to allow our service users the opportunity and time to cope with their daily challenges. An identified space is crucial for these individuals to enable better health and wellbeing.”

The garden will contain sensory plants, private seating areas, solar powered water features, wildlife friendly structures, a children’s play area, outdoor artwork, and musical instruments. It will be inclusive to all ages and abilities and will be wheelchair accessible.

Co-founder of Eve’s Trust Clynton Johnson said: “It also offers a calm place – so if someone is having an episode at school or is just having a bad day, they can take them out to the garden and spend some time with them in a calming environment.”

The garden will also provide a place to remember those that have passed and will feature a memorial wall as a focal point.