The Manx Wildlife Trust recently held their second annual Raise a Ransom for Wildlife event at the charity’s Close Sartfield nature reserve in the Ballaugh Curragh. Once again, the event involved volunteers from the local community being “held to ransom” while carrying out a morning’s “hard labour” on the reserve.
Under the guidance of Reserves Officer, Tricia Sayle, the Manx Wildlife Trust’s award-winning team of regular conservation volunteers – or Muckers as they’re more commonly known! - has been busy working on one of the willow coppice blocks at Close Sartfield in recent months. Coppicing has been practised in British woodlands for centuries and involves cutting trees down, allowing the stumps to regenerate for a number of years then harvesting the resulting stems. The stems are then used to make various products such as hurdles, baskets, fencing, brooms and faggots (bundles of stems that are used on the Trust’s reserves, and more widely around the Island, to help prevent riverbank erosion). During the Raise a Ransom for Wildlife event, the “hard labour” carried out by the volunteers ensured that they soon became experts in making faggots!
While Raise a Ransom for Wildlife was designed to be a light-hearted event, it was all in aid of a very important cause: helping the Manx Wildlife Trust to raise funds to buy a much-needed, new truck – essential for transporting tools to the charity’s various nature reserves around the Island to ensure their effective maintenance and management.
During the event, Emily Heaton from Zurich International Life, Bartosz Niski from the Strand Group, DEFA Minister Phil Gawne MHK and Amy Kneen from the Manx Electricity Authority carried out their “hard labour” under the watchful eyes of the Manx Wildlife Trust’s Fundraising and Wildlife Advocacy Officer, Anne Marie Kilgallon and regular Trust volunteer, Alan Jones. Another of the Trust’s regular volunteers, Dan Whiting, and Reserves Officer, Tricia Sayle, kept the team supplied with materials for making the faggots and an effective production line was soon in progress. Every now and then the volunteers were allowed to take a break from faggot-making to make telephone calls to family, friends and colleagues in an attempt to raise their “ransoms.”
The Charity Committee at Zurich generously agreed to pay half of Emily’s “ransom” whilst Amy’s colleagues at the Manx Electricity Authority helped to raise her “ransom” by selling cakes around their office and carrying out various other fundraising activities. After an initial worry that he might be stuck making faggots for the rest of the day, Bartosz Niski finally managed to raise enough “ransom” money to be set free whilst Phil Gawne was very reluctant to stop working even when his “ransom” had been paid! Amy’s colleague, Julie Callister, who had originally attended the event just to take photographs was unable to resist helping out and by the end of the morning the team had made a total of 21 faggots.
When finally released from their “hard labour”, the volunteers and everyone involved with the event agreed that the morning had been a great success. Anne Marie said, “I’m absolutely delighted with how this year’s Raise a Ransom for Wildlife event has gone, once again all the volunteers have been great sports. With “ransom” totals still increasing we’re hopeful that the event will have raised over ?1000 to go towards our new truck.” Anne Marie went on to say that prior to the event she had also received a donation from Isle of Man Advertising and PR, in lieu of attendance on the day.
On behalf of the Manx Wildlife Trust, Anne Marie would like to thank everyone involved with Raise a Ransom for Wildlife for their tremendous support and is already thinking of ideas for next year’s event! In the meantime, if anyone would like to assist the Manx Wildlife Trust in their efforts to buy their new truck, Anne Marie would be delighted to hear from you on Tel. 844432.
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