Please help us keep our Volunteer Work Weeks in Action!

We are now running more work weeks than ever before.
To help keep them in operation, please make a donation towards a new supply vehicle!

Dear Supporter,

This is a very exciting year for us at Trees for Life, as we’ve begun practical work at Dundreggan, and thanks to the donations from our last appeal, we’ve raised over £12,000 for the wild boar project there – my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who sent a donation for that. We’re also running more Work Weeks in 2009 than ever before (51 in total) to help us reach our 250,000 tree planting target for 2008-09, and those are well under way as I write this. However, a critical need has arisen with the Work Weeks – how to keep them supplied and in action – so I’m writing today to ask for your support in raising £18,000 to purchase a new vehicle for this.

To enable us to put on all those Work Weeks this year, we are running 3 groups in parallel for most of the time. This adds considerably to the logistical and organisational complexity of our operation, especially on Saturdays, when we have to get all the food and supplies for 3 groups (of 10 volunteers each), plus the 6 focalisers for the groups, to Inverness from our base at Findhorn. We’ve been relying on ‘Birch’, our trusty Renault Kangoo, plus a small trailer for this, but that combination is no longer adequate for our needs.

There are only 5 seats in the vehicle, which creates a problem when there are 6 people to transport! Birch is also almost 10 years old, and is nearing the end of her useful working life, so parts and bodywork panels are wearing out, and more frequent and substantial repairs are required. The current arrangement of using a trailer is also far from ideal, as that makes driving more of a challenge in the increasingly congested traffic of Inverness, and is stretching the load-pulling capacity of Birch to the limit.

We need your help now to literally keep our Work Week show on the road!

I am constantly touched and inspired by the commitment and dedication of our volunteers and focalisers, who give up one (or more) of their weeks of holidays to come and plant trees and carry out forest restoration work with us. Their contribution is absolutely vital to the ongoing success of our project to help restore the Caledonian Forest. It’s crucial therefore that we implement a better way of re-supplying the Work Weeks every Saturday. We have no funds available for purchasing a new vehicle now, so I’m relying on the commitment and dedication of supporters like you to raise the £18,000 needed – please help keep our volunteers in action by sending a donation towards this essential project today.

Here’s our plan for a new re-supply vehicle for our Work Weeks:

• After some detailed research and creative thinking by our Work Week staff, we’ve identified the ideal solution for how to re-supply the weeks, that will meet all our needs and simplify the logistics of the Saturday changeovers in Inverness. By using a long wheelbase van, with 3 extra seats installed behind the front seats, we’ll have the capacity for 6 people and lots of cargo space for all the food and equipment.
• We have 3 spare seats available from our recently-purchased Ford Transit minibus for the Dundreggan-based Work Weeks, that we can install as the second row of seats in the van. Purchasing a Ford Transit van means the seats will be compatible, and will also ensure that there is familarity of vehicle controls etc – this is an important consideration for us, when so many different focalisers will be driving the van.
• The long wheelbase van will provide enough cargo space so that we don’t need to use a trailer as well, thereby making the driving experience simpler and safer. Again, this is important when some of the people driving our re-supply runs may not have a lot of experience with a trailer.
• By ordering the vehicle from the same dealer that we used for our recent minibus purchase, we’ve been able to secure a £4,000 discount on the price, which helps reduce the total amount we have to raise. Adding in the costs of installing the extra seats, an additional window and shelving for the food etc in the back gives us the target figure of £18,000 to find.

Your support will make all the difference to the success of this project!

Much of the success of Trees for Life over the past 20 years has resulted from all the donations we receive from supporters such as you. With your backing now, we will solve our re-supply challenge for the Work Weeks, so please send a contribution today – you will literally be helping us to drive forward with our award-winning work for the restoration of the Caledonian Forest!

To make a donation online to this project, please follow the link below, and thank you in advance for any gift you can make – there’s never been a more important time to support us than now!

Yours sincerely,

Alan Watson Featherstone
Executive Director

PS. Please help make this appeal a van-tastic success by sending a donation today!

Please click here to make a donation to the New Supply Vehicle Appeal via our secure server.

We can also take your donation by phone: tel. 0845 458 3505. Thank you.

If you would like to make a donation for a different aspect of our work, please see our Appeals for Funds.

Published: 6 May 2009
Last updated: 17 February 2010