EAUCs Staff Volunteering Day

11th December 2012

The Butterfly Garden 

For our annual staff Christmas day we decided to give our time to someone else and give back to the local community by volunteering for a nearby Cheltenham charity called the Butterfly Garden. The Butterfly Garden is an educational, therapeutic and recreational scheme, based initially on gardening, but now offering a sustainable sanctuary. It is a project for people of all ages dealing with a disablement of any kind. It caters for those looking to escape the world, those looking to re-enter it and some, who are still just looking. Its doors are open to anyone without obligation. 

The Butterfly Garden’s predominant objective is to create a unit that is safe, reliable and self-sustaining. Its underlying aim is to offer diverse, stimulating and purposeful opportunities to people dealing with disablement of any kind whilst delivering a service which offers an amalgamation of education, recreation and therapy, in a cocktail that the individual finds comfortable. Their mantra is and always will be ‘We welcome and value all’.

After an initial introduction from visionary and founder, Chris Evans, explaining the Butterfly Garden’s philosophy and history, we were taken on a tour of the site. We were taken aback by the sheer size of the site and how, much like its founding philosophy, it has become an evolving organic entity weaving and entwining with the original business – a garden centre.

We spent the day interacting with members of staff and volunteers undertaking a variety of tasks which included moving pallets of wood, helping to sort their allotment, processing kindling and helping on their recycling schemes such as video tape recycling. This left us all astonished at just how many components comprise a video tape (I should also mention that they have over 10000 videos!).

A special mention must go to two of the volunteers Alistair and Matt, who instructed and taught us the nuances of videotape recycling. Their enthusiasm and dedication to recycling left an indelible mark on our hearts and sustainable conscience.

From all of us at the EAUC we would like to say a big thanks to the Butterfly Garden and it’s members of staff for allowing us to help volunteer and making our visit so enjoyable.

You can find out more about the Butterfly Garden

Contact us here

The Butterfly Garden, Bamfurlong Lane, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL51 6SL 

Tel : 01452 - 713068

Click here to view a map

Registered Charity no. 1133233