Local volunteers have just put the finishing touches to what’s turned out to be our biggest ever community project, the creation of a new woodland at Kitley, just outside Plymouth. Our veterans worked alongside local volunteers, members of the YEM (Yealm Estuary to Moor) Conservation Group and volunteers from Babcock International Group Engineering to plant no less than 2,600 trees on Lodge Gate Field, alongside the A379.

The weather wasn’t very kind to us but top-quality banter and some serious inter-service wheelbarrow rivalry kept everyone’s spirits up and the work was completed in less than a week. Eventually the site will be community woodland with an outdoor classroom and space for nursery projects tended by local schools. This work is supported by the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust’s Force for Change and Veterans In Communities projects which have been helping our veterans to work in communities.

PARK LIFE

Meanwhile children from the Holy Cross Primary School in Plymouth will soon be onsite at  another of our community projects, the creation of a wildlife education area in Beaumont Park in Plymouth. The area has now been safely fenced in and we’ll soon be working with the school to build bug houses, bird boxes and hedgehog shelters. As well as the AFC Force for Change and Veterans in Communities projects, this work has also been enabled by Nash & Co. Solicitors who continue to provide valuable support to Veterans Outdoors.     

WELCOME!

We’re delighted to welcome a new member of our team, Sam Mahon, who takes over from Mandy Heard as our Fundraising Manager. Sam lives in Taunton and was previously part of the fundraising team at St Margaret’s Hospice. When she’s not busy writing funding applications for us, Sam is a member of her local amateur dramatics society. We wish her all the very best in this important role with us.

We’re also pleased to welcome a new face to our Board of Trustees. Charles Weston Baker spent 11 years as an officer in the Queens Royal Irish Hussars where his appointments included establishing a tank force for the Sultan of Oman. He subsequently held senior management roles with Bovis, P&O and Savills. He has over 30 years of development, consultancy and sales and marketing experience with residential and leisure projects.