Mall right now
Kids club in woods will be summer fun
A Toryglen community group are holding a summer club to get kids involved with the outdoors.
Urban Roots are based at Toryglen Community Base and often engage with the community and local schools to promote the importance of nature in the area.
And during the summer months the group will hold the Forrest Schools Club. This will run on week days from 10.30am till 2.30pm and children attending will be given a variety of nature related activities to enjoy.
Urban Roots community Ranger Tom Cooper will be helping to run the project, for children aged five-11-years-old at the woodland area of Malls Mire.
Malls Mire, which sits between Rutherglen and Toryglen, is bordered by housing and the railway line.
Urban Roots say the site is of importance for nature conservation due to the wildlife found there.
Animals found in Malls Mire include deer, foxes, sparrowhawks and goldcrests and a path network has been recently installed and the area has been granted Local Nature Reserve Status.
The path network was installed earlier this year and the whole project cost around £70,000. A grant the group received from the National Lottery made it possible.
The group describe the land, saying: “It is a little piece of beauty and tranquility in amongst urban madness and sprawl.”
Tom says that the changes make Malls Mire the ideal place to host such activities.
He added: “Everything with regards to Malls Mire is going great. We’ve got the path network in, we’ve cleared it out and it’s a local nature reserve and there’s every chance the children will get to spot some animals.
“We have a club for kids which will run during the summer, it’s called the Forrest Schools Club, we’ve run it for the past three years.
“We want to engage more people with Malls Mire and this is a great way to do that. We’ve got a lot of outdoor activities like climbing trees, making camp fires, building dens and environmental arts. Every year we’ve run the club it has been very successful.”
In fact, kids have enjoyed the club so much that they are looking to hold something similar for adults and toddlers in conjunction with Health ‘n’ Happy.
Tom added: “We’re going to run a club in August for parents and toddlers with Healthy ‘n’ Happy, it’s about getting the wider community to make use of Malls Mire and promoting the woodland. Children have always loved the Forrest Schools Club so we thought we’d try to involve parents and younger children. We also do a lot of work with schools in the woodland. A lot of primary and secondary schools are going for the eco schools porgramme and we can help them with their journey.”
Spaces for the Forrest Schools Club are limited. For more information and to book contact Tom on tegcooper@hotmail.com or call 0141 613 2766.
For more information on Urban Roots, or to get involved with the group, visit their website www.urbanroots.org.uk.