Friday 24th March 2023 was Garden Re-Leaf Day and this year the event was bigger than ever! Here we find out some key stats about the event and the incredible efforts of FUNdraisers up and down the country, together helping to raise much needed funds for the Greenfingers Charity.
£51,000 and counting!
Garden Re-Leaf Day 2023 has so far raised over £51,000! Whether its sponsorship money from the walks, runs and cycle challenges, or coffee mornings, raffles or quiz nights, the money has been rushing in and even more is expected to arrive soon as final totals are totted up.
Linda Petrons, Director of Fundraising & Communications at Greenfingers, said: “We can’t quite believe it. £51,000 and counting is beyond our wildest dreams. All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you!”
And I would walk 1,516 miles……
Now a much-loved event on the Garden Re-Leaf Day calendar, the Sponsored Walk saw a new north walk join the line-up in 2023. With two locations to choose from and the options of a 10 or 20-mile route in the south, or a 13 mile walk in the north, it’s little surprise that 135 walkers donned their boots and racked up the miles this year. Together these walkers completed 1,516 miles or just shy of 3.5million steps combined!
3 Challenges, 1 Star Performance
Anisa Gress from Garden Trade News successfully completed her Garden Re-Leaf Day triathlon in the gym. Whilst she aimed to finish in 2 hours, she actually did the entire thing in 1 hour and 50mins, which is an amazing result!
Four complete 40
Four ultra fit runners from the garden retail sector - Woodlodge’s Simon Neale, Neil Blake and Graham Park, and Blue Diamond’s Heidi Towse - decided to take on the southern 10-mile route, together running 40 miles. And if this that wasn’t enough, Simon, Neil and Heidi, along with STV’s Katy Boyd, also took part in the London Landmarks Half Marathon in the name of Greenfingers, just nine days later!
900 ÷ 12
The Garden Re-Leaf cyclists must have enjoyed the day as together 12 cyclists racked up 900miles on the day. To put that into context, that about a fifth of length of the Great Wall of China, a tenth of the Earth’s diameter, or the same distance as cycling from the UK to Andorra, which is situated on the border of France and Spain in the Pyrenees.
Top 100
Throughout Garden Re-Leaf Day and the following weekend, over 100 garden centres flung open their doors to customers, with a host of exciting events scheduled to boost fundraising totals. Participating garden centres included British Garden Centres, The Old Railway Line, Perrywood, Haskins, The Klondyke Group, Aylett’s, Brookfields Garden Centre, Longacres, St Peter’s Garden Centre and Millbrook.
1 school
Horncastle School teamed up with Horncastle in Blook to promote awareness of the Greenfingers Charity on March 24th. On the day the children and staff wore green or floral clothes!
20 volunteers
The success of Garden Re-Leaf Day is often dependent on those people that work behind the scenes to ensure the smooth running of the day. This year 20 volunteers supported the Garden Re-Leaf Walks including Jane Lawler, Will Armitage, Jenny Douthwaite and Martin Cowell in the north. A host of volunteers also supported at the southern walk start/end point of Tring Garden Centre, including local songster, Jamie Donaldson, who motivated participants with his smooth vocals.
40 Choir Members
Local “Rock Choirs” joined walkers, runners and cyclists (and customers!) at Tring Garden Centre to entertain them with a flash mob and 20 mins of glorious singing.
11 sponsors
Garden Re-Leaf Day sponsors were also an integral part of this year’s success. 11 brands kindly donated time, funds, and expertise. They were AMES UK, SBM Life Science, British Garden Centres, Evergreen, Mulch, Primeur, Jane Lawler Associates, Tring Garden Centre, Kings Farm Shop, The Gardeners Retreat andGarden Trade News.
3 landscape companies
With gardening at the heart of everything Greenfingers does, and the reasons why hundreds of people get involved in Garden Re-Leaf Day every year, it makes sense that each year more and more garden landscape companies get involved. This year saw DB Landscapes and garden designer (and Greenfingers Trustee!) Richard Claxton take part in the Sponsored Walk.
Elsewhere, The Garden Design Company supported with unique hands-on learning sessions for its Garden Club members, where a £50 donation gave them unrivalled insight into how to grow their own fruit, herbs and vegetables.
4 leading brands
Leading industry brands Husqvarna Group, Primeur, Rolawn, Woodmansterne also made sure that their office-based staff enjoyed Garden Re-Leaf Day by holding a host of events at work including cake sales and raffles.
QVC and 6 friends
QVC’s Garden Re-Leaf special took place on March 4th, with a host of garden products up for grabs. Richard Jackson’s Garden, De-Jager, Plants2Gardens, Park Promotions, Hayloft Plants and Greanbase collectively raised £14k from sales on the day.
And 6 four-legged friends!
Not wanting to miss out on the fun, the Garden Re-Leaf Walks saw six dogs join in, muddy paws and all!
Linda Petrons, Greenfingers Director of Fundraising & Communications ended by saying: “We will never stop being amazed by the phenomenal effort and dedication our supporters show us on Garden Re-Leaf Day and also throughout the year. From the bottom of our hearts, and on behalf of all those that spend time in Greenfingers funded gardens, thank you. You really are the best friends we could ever ask for!”
The full Garden Re-Leaf FUNdraising total will be revealed soon!
