Let’s fill Riverfield Drive with trees!!!
Thanks for visiting our community crowdfunder. We, as a community, have embarked on an ambitious campaign to raise funding to plant a beautiful avenue of trees along Riverfield Drive – the road connecting our whole community. Riverfield Residents Association has already sponsored £900, and we’re looking to raise £3600 from you the community to pack the drive with 15 beautiful mature trees. This is a crowd fund campaign so every pound counts - the more we raise, the more trees we have planted!
The idea
Inspired by a stunning tree lined road I often drive down in the north of the borough, I thought why shouldn’t we have that in the midst of our neighbourhood. Riverfield Drive would be just the place.
Riverfield Drive is well used by all of us, whether on foot or by car, and often by our four-legged friends! It’s a road that brings us all together!!
Bedford Borough Council has set up a tree sponsorship scheme with the national charity programme – Trees for Streets. So, following a consultation with the community, our councillors and the team at Trees for Streets, we’ve come up with this campaign to fill Riverfield Drive with trees.
The Power of Community
With the Council’s new Trees for Streets charity sponsorship scheme sponsoring a single 3-4m high (5-6 yr old) semi-mature tree, watered by the Council is £300. Which looking at the cost of a tree this size and planting it, before even considering watering it, is actually a bargain! To sponsor 15 trees along the road between the roundabout by Tesco and the Barkers Lane roundabout, we need to raise £4500.
As Riverfield Residents Association have already sponsored 3 trees (£900) to get us started, this reduces our overall target to £3600 now.
Why plant more trees?
Street trees do so much for us: capture carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, improve our health and wellbeing – both physically and mentally, absorb air pollution, improve air quality by acting like natural filters, protect us from flooding and create shading and cooling – so important in towns and cities. They also make the neighbourhoods where we live that bit nicer.
What next?
Well, donate what you can, share with your friends, family on social media and get excited!
If you would like to do some fundraising yourself, we would love to hear about it and the Riverfield Residents Association will help if we can! Email me at [email protected].
The exact locations and trees are yet to be decided, but they will be planted this winter and will benefit us all, we can’t wait!!
Thank you,
Gemma and the Riverfield Residents Association.
A little bit about me
Riverfield Drive has been my home with my husband for 7 years now. I am passionate about community and the environment, specifically where we live and I have been on the committee for the Riverfield Residents Association for the last few years. My primary task is organising our community litter picks, where I may know some of you from. Litter picking is a great opportunity to clean up our neighbourhood and caring for our environment, whilst also meeting up with our fabulous community! We meet at 10am on the 2nd Saturday of each month in the car park by the dentist. All equipment provided, everyone welcome.