Maylim’s Season of Goodwill
Evergreen Adventure Playground is one of ELBA’s long-standing community partners, working closely with ELBA’s Challenge programme. An exciting space in Hackney, they offer children inclusive and free play with a variety of equipment. The playground has inside space with an arts and crafts room, a soft play room and plenty of inside games, while outside they have numerous slides, adventure walks, climbing frames, ponds, growing patches and even a boat for the children to play in. Open for children aged 5 to 16+, they open after school, at weekends and school holidays. Evergreen, like many community organisations across east London, are always on the lookout for grants and funding, and currently only have enough funds to pay for playworkers when the children are on site. Because of this, maintenance of the playground is a struggle for the regular team of 2 people.
Therefore, ELBA volunteers are a big help to Evergreen, helping them to maintain the playground, maintaining the growing beds, cutting back weeds, spreading soft bark chippings under the play equipment. This support is essential to the running of the playground. In December Evergreen had some special visitors from Maylim, specialists in hard and soft landscaping, who were working on a nearby British Land project. Maylim volunteers were able to use their own tools, equipment and specialism to fix some disrepairs that, due to their specialist nature, we couldn’t ask our regular volunteers to undertake. Maylim’s efforts prepared the playground for winter, providing peace of mind that the equipment can continue to be enjoyed for many years to come.
Working over a number of weeks, Maylim created new stepping blocks, completely rejuvenated the silver surfer slide steps and replaced an old and worn base under another slide, using pulleys to secure the slide while they worked. Pat from Evergreen said:
“It has been great having the volunteers from Maylim. Their expertise shows in the work they have done at the playground. We are so grateful to both Maylim and ELBA for getting these volunteer days together, the playground has really benefited from all the work. Thank you!”
The volunteers got a lot out of the activities too, enjoying the time spent on site and feeling fulfilled knowing that they made a real impact in the community. Mick Ruby of Maylim said:
“We are so pleased that we have been able to reach out to the local community and use our skills and expertise to lend a hand at the Evergreen Play Association. Over a series of Fridays in December and January we brought along a team of our operatives, from a nearby British Land project. All our volunteers thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of repairing some of the playground’s most loved play equipment, including the famous Silver Surfer slide! It is very rewarding to know the difference our work has made and that children can again get full enjoyment out of this incredible outdoor space. We thank British Land for introducing us to ELBA and Evergreen for welcoming us with open arms. We also thank SGC Scaffolding for their help, providing us with access to fix the Silver Surfer.”
Karina Williams of British Land added:
“We are delighted at how Maylim has worked with ELBA and the team at Evergreen Adventure Playground to make a positive difference to children in Hackney. Through our Local Charter, we encourage all our suppliers to connect with local communities around our places and create a lasting positive legacy for all. Well done to Mick and the Maylim team for delivering such great work for Evergreen. Their passion to go the extra mile for community projects is truly reflected in the positive results.”
If you are a building firm or have some specialist skills to offer the community, please contact the Challenge: ELBA team at challengeelba@elba-1.org.uk.
More on British Land’s Local Charter can be found here: www.britishland.com/community.
