Groundwork Volunteer Story: Kate and the Green Patch
Kate is a community volunteer at The Green Patch, a Groundwork project in Kettering run by Groundwork Northamptonshire that provides environmental education and wellbeing activities for the local community. Kate loves spending time outside with plants and people and encouraging other volunteers to thrive.
22 years ago, when The Green Patch was still Kettering Town Council’s unused allotments, Kate was part of the group that helped get this special community site up and running. A garden was soon built for children from the local estate and then as youth groups and schools approached, different pockets of the community began to get involved in what would become a shared green space and community hub providing local people with opportunities for healthy eating, wellbeing, and educational services.
Kate has been back at The Green Patch for the past three years, after no longer being able to tend to her own allotment due to surgery. She missed being outside and gets joy from coming to The Green Patch, no matter the season. The most rewarding part for her is being able to engage with community volunteers with learning disabilities, some who can neither read nor write. She helps them join in and work hard through encouragement and guidance; and despite Kate being limited with mobility, she can share her learned knowledge, enabling the other volunteers to carry out physical tasks. Together they are able to work as a team.
When Kate first started volunteering three years ago, a task such as making of cup of tea was beyond the ability of some volunteers. Now they are comfortable and growing in confidence. There’s something for everyone, at every age, from gardening to doing the washing up and those having good days or bad! Little friendships have sprung up. It really is a community of people.
Kate hosts a singing group at The Green Patch for the volunteers once a month, usually playing ABBA or The Beatles on keyboard, for people to get involved and enjoy. After a couple of older volunteers who couldn’t read joined the group, Kate wrote to their family who set up a playlist of the songs for them to learn from memory. Next time they came down, they knew all of the words. It is this example that displays the inclusivity and generosity of people like Kate, who represent the ethos of The Green Patch.
Kate said:
I helped set this lovely space up 22 years ago. Kettering Town Council had allotments that weren’t being used and a group of us cultivated vegetables from one polytunnel and sold them out of the back of his car.
I’m a people person. The nice thing is we’ve made friends here. When you have friendships elsewhere, you have to text to arrange to meet people When you come to The Green Patch, you know that you’re going to see people you know.
The woman who named the community garden, ‘The Green Patch’, has been coming here for 22 years. At 86 years old, she walks a mile and a half from her house with her walking trolley and has a plot down here. That’s what I like about The Green Patch, it doesn’t matter what age you are – we all look out for each other.