Sowing the seeds of new partnerships

A new cross-community gardening project has been launched in Derry.
Pictured at St Peters Church, Culmore Road, at the launch of a cross-community flower bedding project are the parishioners, councillors, representatives from the Mens Workshop who provided the flower boxes and representatives from Altnagelvin Garden Centre who provided the plants. Included in the picture are Councillor Maolíosa McHugh, Mayor of Derry City and Strabane, The Ven. Robert Miller and Rev. Katie McAteers, cutting the ribbon, and Ivan Cooper, founding member of the SDLP. DER2018GS062Pictured at St Peters Church, Culmore Road, at the launch of a cross-community flower bedding project are the parishioners, councillors, representatives from the Mens Workshop who provided the flower boxes and representatives from Altnagelvin Garden Centre who provided the plants. Included in the picture are Councillor Maolíosa McHugh, Mayor of Derry City and Strabane, The Ven. Robert Miller and Rev. Katie McAteers, cutting the ribbon, and Ivan Cooper, founding member of the SDLP. DER2018GS062
Pictured at St Peters Church, Culmore Road, at the launch of a cross-community flower bedding project are the parishioners, councillors, representatives from the Mens Workshop who provided the flower boxes and representatives from Altnagelvin Garden Centre who provided the plants. Included in the picture are Councillor Maolíosa McHugh, Mayor of Derry City and Strabane, The Ven. Robert Miller and Rev. Katie McAteers, cutting the ribbon, and Ivan Cooper, founding member of the SDLP. DER2018GS062

Local politicians, including the Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Councillor Maolíosa McHugh, last week joined members of Christ Church, Culmore, Muff and St Peter’s (CCCMSP) Group’s Thursday Club, at the Acorn Centre next to St. Peter’s Church, for the formal launch of the new horticultural project.

The club has built raised vegetable, herb and flower beds behind the Acorn Centre where its members gather one day each week for fellowship and lunch.

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The raised beds were built with the help of the ‘Men’s Shed’ in the nearby Leafair area, using around 200 plants donated by the Altnagelvin Garden Centre.

Rector of the CCCMSP Group, Ven. Robert Miller (Archdeacon of Derry) and the Pastoral Director in CCCMSP, Rev. Katie McAteer, formally cut the ribbon at the launch.

Archdeacon Miller thanked Rev. McAteer – and the parish administrator, Angela Dobbins – for having the vision to bring the project to fruition. “We’re grateful to the Men’s Shed for supporting this initiative with their time, effort and expertise. The Thursday Club is an opportunity for the whole community to engage in Christian Fellowship, so the input from the Men’s Shed is very much in keeping with our ethos and is appreciated greatly,” he said.

“I also want to place on record our gratitude to the Altnagelvin Garden Centre, for its generosity helping us to get this project off the ground. And, of course, the Thursday Club simply wouldn’t exist without the significant input from our volunteers.”