Woodland Games a Hit in Birmingham

On Saturday 17 August the third Woodland Eco Games took place in Stirchley, Birmingham at Hazelwell Park. The annual event in the brainchild of local art event expert and planners Hipkiss and Graney. The event designed to promote eco art alongside a range of fun wacky games most certainly bought fun and laughter to members of the the local community.

Central Co-op and the Member Relations team in the area helped fund the event and was on hand to talk to the community about the work we do in supporting our members and their families in the communities where we trade, but also giving away free fruit while talking about the benefits of 'Healthy Choices'. We had lots of free fruit, flapjacks and our very own Fairtrade Snakes and Ladders game to play.

As part of our commitment to helping the community lead a healthy lifestyle, Cath and Fabio from 'CycleCath' were on hand to give free bike checks and complete minor repairs for free, again funded by the Western MCC. Cath stated they looked at and repaired 16 bikes, helping to make sure those bikes were safe to ride.

The event started with a parade from Stirchley to the park with the four teams taking part in the wacky games. The teams; Micro-Fauna-tics, Moss Munchers, Moss Piglets, and Stentor took part in three games; Blade Runners, Nutrient Cycling, and Command and Conker. Blade Runners was a game where two teams had to run in a team to collect two huge blades of grass and bring them back to their base using large grabbers. Nutrient Cycling, a game in co-operation with worker co-op The Bike Foundry pitted two teams against each other collecting nutrient balls in a cargo bike and bring them back to base. and the last game of Command and Conker used two trebuchets to launch paper machete conkers at a target. The wackiness of the games alongside them not always going to plan made the events amazingly fun

During the events and the day, the Artefact House Band, with our very own MCC member Shaz, and a local drumming group provided the musical entertainment in the same wacky style as the games

Jonathon Graney, event organiser quoted "With the constant support of the Central Co-op we have been able to take an experimental idea from research and development to final outcome to produce a high-quality accessible, safe and inclusive annual local festival. It is as educational and creative as it is beloved by its community with engagement increasing year on year. We look forward to finding new ways we can work with Central Co-op to grow this festival of sustainability and ecology further"

The day ended with custom made individual medals being presented to the teams taking part. All in all a wonderful day for Central Co-op to be involved in. Promoting healthy choices alongside an environmental message at such a fun day event was brilliant. I/we are looking forward to nest summer for the forth annual Woodland Eco Games.