Young people from the community came together with a local youth football team as well as committee members from the club.
Participants from the soccer club were 12 males aged between 16 & 17. They were supported by a mix of male and female, 7 volunteers who were mixed in age between 18-24.
The young people who planned the initiative did so as a means of regenerating the nature within the community.
The majority of the green space in their community has given way to much needed housing, but the young people highlighted that these new housing developments are not being supplemented with appropriate nature within the environment to support the well being of new members of the community.
The group planted 1100 trees in the boundary areas within the Waterford Crystal Complex. The group arrived to torrential rain that morning and without spirits being dampened, they took a shovel each and got digging.
The trees themselves were a mix of native Irish trees, silver birch, Scot’s pine, oak, ash, hazel and willow.
Young people sought out the expertise of tree enthusiast Tom Kent on the day and were given an excellent demonstration on how to properly plant a tree as well as loading the plant sites with bark mulch so that the trees would lock in the moisture from rain fall to give them their best possible start to life.
The day itself was a resounding success and there were more than enough cakes and snacks to keep the young people going throughout the day.
