Around 40 members of all ages from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Grimsby area united to help preserve and rejuvenate a large community park. Sidney Park has multiple facilities and covers a substantial area in a densely populated part of the town and is greatly used by the community.
The residents of the Sidney Park Friends group were looking for volunteers to help rejuvenate the park and bring it back to its former glory. Two congregations in Grimsby came to their aid with two consecutive action Saturdays at the park.
The weather that greeted the members on the day was grey, overcast and raining. The local reporter noted in her article how the weather immediately changed as soon as the members arrived and started to work. The rain stopped, the clouds dispersed and out came the sun allowing the work to proceed. Over the two action days, benches were wire-brushed and painted, litter was picked, picnic tables were wire-brushed and painted, gardens hoed and planted and a beautiful old bridge that spans the large pond in the park was lovingly repainted.
A few days after the Helping Hands project where the children had planted 100 lettuces in the park’s ‘Incredible Edible Garden’ there was a surprise visit by judges for the town’s gardens, “...in Bloom” competition. The garden was awarded Third Prize, much to the delight of the Primary children. The' Incredible Edible Garden' is a project where crops are planted for the local residents to pick and use as they need.
The Helping Hands action days attracted a lot of media interest, and was reported three times in local papers including two full page articles in the local Telegraph. Photos of the members were printed along with ‘before’ and ‘after’ photographs of the benches, tables and the bridge. As the members chatted and worked together some local children expressed their thanks for the work being done on their park adding ‘what you are doing to our park is great’.
Nicola Hucknell, President of Sidney Park Friends, expressed her appreciation saying “It has been an absolute pleasure working with the Church. I feel that we have not only achieved a big step towards restoring Sidney Park to its former glory for the community, but we have also met some wonderful people.....I am writing a letter of thanks to the church for the marvellous ‘Helping Hands’ programme you have and the kindness of members.”
The Helping Hands volunteers were called ‘an inspiring team’ by the media because on the first action Day, Nicola Hucknell looked around the huge park and seeing members working everywhere around the park beamed and commented, ‘This is inspiring’.