Bee inspired by Outreach team’s Rochdale bee project
Schools and organisations around Rochdale have been getting busy planting small wildflower gardens as part of an Outreach project focusing on saving bees in the area. Bees have been a symbol of co-operation for many years because they co-operate to maintain their hives. However, they are currently under threat because there aren’t enough wildflowers to provide pollen
As a result of the project, the Gardeners Club at Gordon Riff Garden Centre will design long-standing ways to incorporate the wildflower beds into their gardens and monitor the changes in bees over the next six months. Outreach Officers from the Co-operative Heritage Trust visited the club to discuss Rochdale’s co-operative history and the role of bees as a symbol for co-operation. Inspired by the Rochdale Pioneers, the team of gardeners is now pioneering bee-friendly gardening!
Elsewhere in the borough, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing’s Fine Art painting group will focus on the flowers and bees. Twelve local schools have also taken part in the project, as well as the town’s Youth Service and Healey Dell Nature Reserve, using wildflower seeds provided by the Co-operative Group.
Work created by participants in the project, including artwork, poems, creative writing, stories, films, photographs and other documentation, will be exhibited in celebration of the project at the Rochdale Pioneers Museum on Toad Lane this autumn.
ROCHDALE Project Community Outreach Officer Nancy Brown said: “By September there will be enough wildflower gardens dotted around Rochdale and the borough to keep the bees in the north very happy indeed!”
To keep up to date with the latest news on the project visit www.rochdalepioneersmuseum.coop.
Published On: July 9, 2012
Written By: Natalie
Filed Under: Our Heritage • Schools and Young People
Co-operative Learning