Accessible Outdoor Activities and Cooking Shelter

Aim

We need a permanent accessible shelter for activities and cooking all-year round, accommodating up to 40 people, disabled and non-disabled.

Rain, rain, go away, come back another day

As a community interest company, we provide nature-based activities for all people throughout the year. However, being nestled on the edge of Bodmin moor, which gets rather windy and wet, means some activities must be cancelled due to lack of a suitable shelter. Likewise, during the summer months, a large covered space would enable us to protect small children during hot spells by providing necessary shade. In both cases, a shelter enables us to continue serving our community all year round.

Our visitors say...

"Providing a shelter is incredibly important for the disabled children we work with. Many have complicated health issues which require respite from the elements during outdoor activities." Lynsey Robinson, Young people programme manager, Sensory Trust.

"Our family have attended quite a few I Love Nature events. A shelter would enable activities to take place which might otherwise be hampered by the weather, therefore making the event even more enjoyable for the children." Debbie (local parent)

Who and where are our community

Our immediate community includes the parishes of:

• Linkinhorne with a population of 1,541 
• St Cleer with a population of 4,366 
• St Ive with a population of 4,246
• Liskeard (our nearest town) with a population of 11,366

We also target specific groups from all over Cornwall and from Plymouth, which is our nearest city. Groups include home-ed families, families in poverty, disabled children and adults, unpaid carers, adults with a mental health condition, primary and pre-schools, adults with learning disabilities and children in care.

The three little pigs

Our first shelter was a humble parachute, but it got taken by the wind. 

We then had a small yurt but the roof blew off one Christmas and all the furniture inside got drenched. 

We then invested in a large teepee, but a winter storm pulled the pegs out of the ground, tossed the large canvas around the field a few times before it then got trodden on by sheep. Baaaa! 

Like the story of the three little pigs, we're now looking for something a lot more robust and permanent...

Our dream shelter

We plan to build a robust, fully accessible round shelter with fire pit cooking area, timber sides and green-coloured bitumen roof so that it nestles into its woodland setting. The building will be a permanent structure used by I Love Nature and its community for many years. 

Construction work has already started thanks to funding from Tesco bags of help and from our own reserves. So far, we have cleared the woodland area with community volunteers and installed the base for the fire pit area. 

Your support will help us to...

Construct the roof and install a level sub-base floor. The main emphasis for this building is to be partially open-sided, giving the impression you are still outside, while being fully accessible for all our community members. 

If we get more than we bargained for...

Any additional funding obtained would enable us to create a level accessible pathway to the shelter, pave the internal flooring, create seating and PVC/Canvas drop down windows. And if we're super lucky with funding, we could also commission a fully accessible fire cauldron!

A breakdown of the costs of our project.

Total project cost: £8,000. 

• £2,000 from Tesco (used to purchase building materials and clear woodland).
• £1,000 from our own reserves (purchase of timber up-rights for walls). 

Seeking from Calor Gas Community Fund: 

• Timber for roof: £1,064.83 
• Roofing sheets: £2,519.40 
• General fixings: £832.52
• Sub-base for floor: £396 
• Tool hire: £147.60 

Total: £4,960.00 

Labour provided for free by ourselves with volunteers

This project successfully funded on 16th July 2020