Dear readers,
This month, we invite you up to Harmony Woods to help add more wildflowers to the meadow. We update you on Peace Day 2020, AmazonSmile, and our continued volunteering opportunities. Also, dates have been announced for the Ash Tree Stream exhibition; a culmination of a year's worth of art and outdoor learning with James Aldridge and 5 ATU partner schools, and October's art club theme is 'Wild Mammals!'. As always, there is a lot to get involved with over the coming autumn months. Thank you for your continued support,
Best wishes, the ATU team.

International Peace Day 2020

The Monday work team was joined by a small group of young people on 21^st September to plant a tree to commemorate Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots International Day of Peace 2020.

The youth of Andover was represented by 2 ATU youth ambassadors from Winton Community Academy, who commemorated the day with us by hanging doves and messages from their fellow students, planting the tree and having a peace walk through the woods. Members of the community also came up to the woods in their spare time to hang a message of peace.

The tree planted will honour lives lost and changed and the services given by so many across the world to help and care for those in need during the pandemic

We now invite thoughts from the local community as to how we may commemorate lives lost and lives changed as a result of the pandemic by further tree plantings across the winter.
Please get in touch via email - volunteers@andovertrees.org.uk

Peace Day 2020 News Report

#AshTreeStream

Ash tree Stream school sessions led by environmental artist James Aldridge are back! James has already had 2 of a final 7 art and outdoor learning sessions with the 5 ATU partner schools invovled in the project.

The Ash Tree Stream Exhibition at Chapel Arts Studios in Andover will share documentation and artwork from project sessions with all five schools, from our inset session with teachers, and Jame's own individual photographic and video based artwork.

There will also be two public online events linked to the exhibition (in addition to a dedicated session for each school), the first being an interview with James on Instagram Live, and the second a panel discussion on the theme of The Role of Art In Environmental Education.

More details to follow on these very soon.
Make sure you're following the project at ashtreestream.com

Meet our volunteers - Doreen

Now you can donate to ATU every time you shop on Amazon!

We are now registered on AmazonSmile! AmazonSmile is the sister site of Amazon, only, the difference is that it allows you to select a charity to receive support every time you make a purchase, at no extra cost you to.

All proceeds will help fund the new woodland classroom and community space.

Click here to set up Andover Trees United as your chosen charity: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/ch/1167574-0

Remember, make your purchase by going in through smile.amazon.co.uk (not www.amazon.co.uk) to support charity.

Schools Tree planting

Although none of us know what November will look like, we already have school groups booked in to plant trees in the woods during planting fortnight ( 16th - 27th Nov).

If you can help any day Mon-Fri we'd love to hear from you so that we can compile a list of who is available & invite you to induction sessions.

Please let us know by emailing volunteers@andovertrees.org.uk.

Community Tree Planting

Planting will start again on Saturday November 14th 2020 and continue through the winter. Due to Covid, visitors will be unable to just drop in and out of sessions as they have done in previous years, a booking in advance system will be in place.

We hope as many of you as possible will be able to help over the winter months.

If you like to join in, please get in touch so that we can add you to the list - this way we can keep you informed of all the dates as soon as they are arranged.

Thank you.

One Ash
Make sure you're following the One Ash project online #OneAshTree , on our social media pages and via our One Ash section of the website.

Throughout October, we will be introducing you to all of the wonderful artists and crafters who are taking part in the project, and by October half-term their 'One Ash Journal' pages will be up and running on our website for you to follow their creative journeys and the journey of the timber.

Community Art Club

This month’s art gallery of ‘Foraging’ has now closed – Thank you so much to those who contributed, and from all corners of the world!

Take a look at your creations

We’ll be announcing this month’s ‘winners’ via social media soon - 2 will be drawn from a hat, 1 favourite will be chosen by ATU volunteers and 1 by this month’s special guest, Robin Harford!

Robin is a plant-based forager, ethnobotanical researcher and wild food educator. He has published over 50 foraging guide books.

October’s theme: Wild Mammals!
National Mammal Week is this month, so to celebrate, let's get outside and get creative and appreciate the wild furry friends that we share our towns and countryside with. :)

Send in your mammal-themed creations to eve.johnson @andovertrees.org.uk to be showcased in our gallery and entered into a prize draw.
Remember, it doesn't have to be a painting or drawing - you can be as creative as you want!

Green Crafts

Our green craft sessions are back and we're making things for Christmas!
Any money made from the sales of our creations will to go towards the cost of the cabin build in the woods.

If you'd like to learn some new skills or brush up on existing ones & help with the making, please get in touch via volunteers@andovertrees.org.uk

Also, we have begun sculpting labels for this year's school trees but there are more still needing to be made.

Donate via Global Giving

Thank you for your support.

Covid-19

In order to adhere to the government’s guidelines, we would like to make you aware that:

Volunteer workdays; after testing out our covid-19 procedures with a small group of experienced volunteers last month, our monthly Saturday and weekly Monday workdays will begin to resume in September through a sign-up-in-advance system.
- Those of you that may walk through Harmony Woods as your daily exercise are welcome to carry out an individual task if you wish to. If you are interested in this idea, please contact us for more information.
- We also ask for help in monitoring the site’s condition. If you notice anything untoward in Harmony Woods, we would really appreciate it if you could let us know. Thank you.
Our schools project work has now resumed, and there are still additional resources online for those of you that would like to do some activities at home or outdoors.

We are still working behind the scenes on strategic planning, writing funding bids, project prep and all sorts of admin tasks. If you would like to volunteer in any of these areas we would love to hear from you - please get in touch. We can still be reached via our website and online via our social media pages.

We hope you all stay safe and we look forward to seeing you all again soon. x

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