Adventure #11 We are the Champions/GIY love of our lives
(Valentines Day) Saturday 14th February Airfield, Dundrum
The day had come for the Champions Get Together 2015.
It takes place every February. GIY gets all the group coordinators (Local Champions) together to chat about the year gone, the year ahead, update them on GIY HQ, hear their views as well as getting them sharing and learning from each other. (Not a busy schedule or anything).
As Group Coordinator, I should perhaps have been feeling nervous about my role in the day’s activities. Oddly enough though as the GIY crew piled into the car (at some previously unheard of time on a Saturday morning) I just found myself groggily thinking about how much I liked them all. I was really lucky to have found this internship.
(On that note if you’d like to replace me, (sniff) have a look out for the application, we are on the lookout for the next intern).
I really enjoyed meeting people I had been talking to for months but never seen. It’s funny how you make a mental image of someone even down the minute details but mine were wildly off.
Mick did his GIY inspiring thing and some of the champions gave brilliant talks on the things they had done with their groups last year. Hopefully they inspired the others to do similar things they certainly inspired me.
We also had a talk from Madeline McKeever from Brown Envelope seeds on seed saving. Despite being an ecology and biology teacher at one point it turned out I am massively ignorant when it comes to seeds. So that was great fun. Especially when she covered the floor in seedy bits and gave us all a squash seed to go home and grow.
There was some gorgeous sandwiches and flapjack and a tour of the gardens from Kitty Scully (I saw a lot of her that week). We choose Airfield because it is a bit like what we have planned for GROW HQ in Waterford (the new food education centre that’s about to get under construction). The restaurant gets most of its vegetables from the garden right outside so people can taste the difference in food eaten fresh and then go outside and learn how it is grown. I haven’t forgotten how good the salmon salad I had there once was. Mmm rocket.
I think it’s safe to say we all had a great day. We got lots of positive and amusing feedback and great advice on our plans. I think they must really appreciate that Mick takes their views so seriously he changes his plans for them. But after all without our Champions running groups in their communities there would be no GIY.
One of the best things I took from the day was Amanda one of our most dedicated (and hilarious) Champions saying that we were doing something right because Mick never used to smile and looked really happy that day. Keeping the visionary happy is always good. It also means that all the hard work me and Shona put in is working and that GIY is hopefully just getting better and better.
We made it home eventually and after far too much cheese and wine (it was a dinner party) I had the best lie in ever (well in my opinion anyway).
