BTCV: GreenZine

BTCV has been one of Britain's best kept secrets for more than half a century. But we're not hiding our light under a bushel any longer.

We aren't changing what we do but we are changing how we tell our stories to ensure everyone knows the extent of our great work across the UK and beyond. Next month you'll start to see some changes as we raise our game.

We hope you'll join us on this exciting journey and help spread the word. Don't miss next month's GreenZine for how you can join in and feel good.

Hop on Board - We Need Your Help Across the UK our minibuses help us achieve great results by getting our volunteers out to the green places which need our help. But our Central Lakes minibus has definitely seen better days. It's now 13 years old and has clocked up 29,388 miles. It's taken 790 volunteers to 124 different Lakeland sites and carried the tools to help us plant 35,175 trees during its lifetime. We need to buy another minibus to keep our teams active at the heart of this beautiful National Park. Please help by giving what you can. Donate online or read more about our work in Cumbria. Palace Joy for BTCV Community Group Last month we told you about our fantastic event at Buckingham Palace. Well it turned out to be even more fantastic for a community group from Haringey. Living Under One Sun, a vibrant community group from Northumberland Park, manages allotments, play-schemes, an orchard, and an apiary and last year won our Community Group of the Year award at BTCV's Green Hero awards. Since then Living Under One Sun has strengthened its relationship with BTCV and the group’s founder, neighbourhood officer Leyla Laksari, was invited to a BTCV reception at Buckingham Palace hosted by BTCV Patron HRH the Duke of Edinburgh. A fellow guest was so impressed by Living Under One Sun’s achievements, he donated £5000. BTCV supports more than 2000 community groups across the UK. Find out how you can get involved - you might even get a trip to the Palace! Poetry Book to Benefit BTCV In Kent we've already found a new way to tell the BTCV story - or should that be a poem! A poetry book is to be launched to raise funds for BTCV. The book, put together by a poetry collective, is called Touch Wood. It will be launched in June and contains 60 poems written by young people aged between eight and 11 years old as part of the BTCV Kent Heritage Trees project. The poems have been selected by Kent poet Vicky Wilson, part of the WordAid collective, and are accompanied by illustrations by the children. All profits from the sale of each book go to support BTCV.