PRESS RELEASE
MARCH 2017
ANNOUNCING:
VERULAMIUM AT PLAY
A new charity initiative to rejuvenate the play area in St Albans
flagship park
Verulamium at Play is a local charity co-founded by Jessica Chivers – a local
resident and councillor (charity no. 1170476). It has formed a working group of
residents and local parent volunteers, working with the approval of St Albans
Council, to raise money to revamp the play area in the district’s flagship park.
The play area has seen little change in 30 years and retains its original layout.
The people at the forefront of the charity’s work are parents who used to play
in this park themselves when they were children – and are now taking their
own children back to the same park, decades later.
Our vision is to replace the 30 year old, out-dated play equipment in
Verulamium Park with something innovative and accessible that encourages
imaginative outdoor play, in a way that other spearheading parks around the
country are already doing, but in which St Albans is lagging behind. By doing
this, not only will we improve the ‘park-life’ for the city’s children, but we’ll
also encourage visitors from local areas to travel to St Albans, and encourage
increased leisure tourism to the city.
The target we need to raise is £200,000 - by Summer 2018.
Work can then take place over the winter months, ready for relaunch in the
Spring of 2019. We have already secured £50K towards the fund – but with ¾
of the total pot still to be raised, the next 18 months will be all about
fundraising. We are working with local schools, businesses, residents and St
Albans Council to run events and activities in order to reach the target.
With the St Albans Half Marathon approaching on Sunday 11th June – we have
registered with them as a charity that can be supported by fundraising and are
listed on their sponsorship page.
We would love local residents/parents who are running this marathon to select
VERULAMIUM AT PLAY as their chosen charity for their efforts!
Additionally – a big shout out to corporate companies in St Albans who may
have a whole team running the event (lawyers/estate agents/retail businesses)
– would they consider running for us? We can provide branded t-shirts!
For some extra fundraising, we now have our text to donate number set up
and ready to go:
Text PARK18 £2 to 70070
There are many other opportunities for supporting this campaign – some of
which are listed below:
- Get involved in the charity itself. Can you volunteer some of your
business time to the cause?
- Donate helpful funds! (Via text-to-donate, above)
- Can your business help to organise an event to raise funds?
- Keep yourself up to date on our progress, by following us on Twitter
@Verulamium_Play and
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Verulamiumatplay/
Background to the project and the Council’s involvement can be found
here: http://www.stalbans.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/parks-and-greenspace/parks/verulamium-park/VPPARP/default.aspx
Key press contacts:
Jessica Chivers
St Albans City & District Councillor (Verulam ward)
01727 866100
[email protected]
Raihaanah Ahmed
[email protected]
07534 523232
Karen Francis
[email protected]
07976 807967
Josie Madoc
Red Flamingo Marketing Ltd
Marketing & PR Support
07854 338576
[email protected]