MEDIA RELEASE
Horizons Regional Council

Monday 30 July, 2012
Army of volunteers head to Pit Park

On Saturday, Pit Park came to life with an army of volunteers planting over 4,000 plants, thanks to the Dera Sacha Sauda group, with many of the plants supplied by Horizons Regional Council.

Earlier this year the Pit Park People Society received over $4,800 funding from Horizons Regional Council for the purchase of native plant species such as birds nest ferns, oioi and punga ferns.

However they were still looking for support from the community to plant the natives. This is where the international organisation Dera Sacha Sauda came into the picture. Members of the non-profit organisation travelled especially from Auckland to participate in the planting weekend with all plants in the ground by the end of the day Sunday.
Dera Sacha Sauda have made the trip to Palmerston North to take part in other community projects before, but this is the first time they have worked with the Pit Park People Society. The two groups came together through connections via Environment Network Manawatu and John Flenley at A’Rocha, with the weekend organised within ten days. Jaspreet Saidhu who is based in Palmerston North was the liaison between Pit Park and the group in Auckland.

“We were thrilled to receive the community grants funding from Horizons earlier this year, and the support from Dera Sacha Sauda is the icing on the cake”, said Pit Park representative Marise Clark,

“The types of plants the Horizons funding provided for are rarely donated to the project and have often proven difficult to propagate for our volunteers, so for this weekend to come together, and to be blessed by the sunny weather has been fabulous”.

The project at Pit Park is now in its ninth planting season with work currently being carried out on the carpark and the wetland area to be developed further. It is a great place to stop and have a picnic and to let the kids explore, so if you haven’t had a chance to wander through in recent times, it is well worth the visit.

Further information can be found on Pit Park’s facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pitpark.palmerstonnorth

The next round of Horizons Community Grants Funding will open on August 1 2012 with all applications due by Friday 28 September 2012.

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