LONGRIDGE SPRING CLEAN WEEKEND WAS 'WOW'

Longridge has put out a massive appeal in recent weeks to its supporters and volunteers to help the site recover from the devastating flooding it suffered at the start of this year.

Last weekend was their Spring Clean, when people were asked to come and help restore the site back to health ready in time for the peak season.

Now, Longridge is hoping to get local experts, tradespeople and companies like engineering, building and landscaping firms to contribute their expertise, manpower and help with materials over the coming months. And donations and volunteers are always needed!

The outcome of the Spring Clean weekend was better than anyone could have hoped: Longridge was overwhelmed with help, with nearly 220 people turning up ready to dig, scrape, repair, wipe, lift, carry, paint and shovel. And eat cakes, which were delivered and consumed in vast quantities!

Volunteer Jan Stannard went around to meet some of the hard-working people who had come for the Spring Clean weekend, to ask what made them want to come and help. All were full of praise for the Centre’s work and said how much they wanted to do what they could to restore the site to its former glory.

Here are some of the things that the volunteers had to say: Audrey, a sprightly 84 and almost certainly the oldest volunteer, had brought her grandson, Oscar, 13, to help with the clear-up. Audrey said: 'I came because Longridge is a place I brought my grandchildren and it is such a good thing for the young people. I watch them on the river and it’s great.'

Oscar, who goes to Elstree School, said he helped scrape dirt off the granite and cleaned the boats. 'It’s a nice place and I wanted to help out,' he said. 'I feel good about having done something. It was worth coming.'

Lots of the volunteers were linked with Cub, Scout, Brownie and Guide packs. Liz Pearce, who runs a Brownie unit, said she brings them twice a year, and her daughter comes canoeing and is on an Easter course. 'My daughter was desperate to make sure it was open in time!' she said. 'We’ve been cleaning the canoes inside and out as they were full of silt and rubble. We’ve also been clearing the big stones off the go-kart track. It’s a beautiful day, it couldn’t have been better, I feel brilliant and you know that people will benefit.'

Sue Harley is with the River Church in Marlow and said that the church has an initiative to help in the community. 'A group of us has come to help. It’s a really great facility, run on a shoestring, and serves lots of different groups. I’ve been brushing down the trees which have clay around the trunks, and then organising for the stones from the go-kart track to go around the roots so that they don’t trip people up,' she explained. 'I feel good about helping, and I’m a gardener so I’m doing something I can do!'

While Longridge’s usual café is drying out from being flooded up to 18 inches inside, the Longridge team quickly set up a temporary kitchen and servery nearby in another building. During the weekend, all the volunteers were constantly fed and watered by a big team of local Guides. ‘Cake Central’, as it was dubbed, was stocked with a vast array of every kind of delicious cake, not only homemade by volunteers and the community, but also generously donated by two local companies, Asda and the Handmade Cake Company.

The refreshments were being very efficiently run by Guider Kelly Clare, ably assisted by a rota of Guide volunteers from her packs. Not only did the Guides man the refreshment centre, but they also ferried drinks out around the site all weekend to keep everyone topped up.

The Spring Clean also involved larger companies. One of them, Berkeley Homes, has a charitable foundation, the Berkeley Foundation, which has an existing link with Longridge. The Foundation asked for volunteers from Berkeley to help. Emily was one of a group of five Berkeley employees that gave up some of their weekend.'It’s my first time here and it’s beautiful,' she said. 'It’s good to be giving back and to be involved in another side of Berkeley. The weather’s been great. Our team has helped rake stones into piles on the go-kart track to be taken off to make the area under the trees safe. It’s hard labour!'

Tam, who lives in Didcot and works for Grundon Waste Management, is one of Longridge’s long-term volunteers. She first came to the Centre three years ago having given herself a course as a birthday present to herself. Then she began to look into it further, and the more she did so, the more she realised that it represented things she felt were important. She came to an Open Day and 'saw youngsters outside, having fun, learning together, not indoors on X-boxes.' She said: 'I strive to get kids outside, so this place really represented things I consider important. I spoke to the Longridge team about how I could help and have been involved ever since. Over this weekend I’ve been doing lots of things - path cleaning, painting, organising people, resurfacing the go-kart track. The turnout has been phenomenal – by 10.30am on Saturday, the place was swarming with people, it was amazing, heartwarming. Asda have been fantastic.'

Organising the weekend has been Emmaleen Dean, one of Longridge’s staff. Emmaleen is operations manager, and she has been on site throughout the floodin - the worst the Centre has ever experienced. 'We knew the flooding was to happen, and we were prepared, but not for how quickly the water rose,' she explained. 'We knew the café would flood, for example. It was inevitable, but we never expected it to be this bad. Inside the café it reached about 2ft and outside almost 3ft. As the river came up fast during the day, we were packing up the office and taking everything upstairs. Then we had to get the office staff to vacate so that they could carry on running the Centre from elsewhere, leaving five of the team behind to protect the site as best we could. We had shifts working day and night to save the staff accommodation along with the main electricity cupboard, though we had back-up generators ready. It’s been very difficult getting over the flooding but what’s been great is how much everyone cares. The most frustrating thing has been waiting for the flooding to go. It has affected Longridge massively and we were worried for the site and if we would recover. Even after this weekend, we still urgently need volunteers, people we can rely on. As a charity, it isn’t possible to keep the place operational without volunteers every day of the year. We would like to retain some volunteers to help after today.'

Emmaleen explained how they tackled the massive post-flood clear-up and restoration. 'I asked all the teams for a list of what needed doing, which was a very long list. I then worked out what people we needed and what materials. My colleague and I then broke down the tasks and handed them out. We’ve achieved masses already. Even though many people came on their own, we put them to work with others as a team, so they met people for the first time, which has been really nice. But I can’t emphasise enough that we now need experts and professionals to help us, builders, tilers, electricians, painters, landscapers… We would really like those people to get in touch with us to help in the near future with everything we’ll still have to do after the Spring Clean.'

Amanda Foister is the driving force behind Longridge and she has been relentless in emailing supporters and using social media to drum up as much volunteer support as possible for the spring clean. 'The weekend has been a little bit overwhelming,' she reflected. 'Yesterday we ran out of tools for volunteers! The scale of response we’ve had has been hard to comprehend. We’ve been through such a rough time and to have this beautiful weekend and so many people here, and to hear all the positive things they’ve had to say about Longridge, it’s a lot to process. And it’s been hearing all the comments from the volunteers, about what Longridge means to them and their families, from people who have been coming here for 20 years to those who’ve never been before. It was 'wow'.

'The great news is that we will be OK for this season, and the more people we get to see how we have managed to recover, the better. What we still need are three things. First, we need people to use the Centre, as without them, we won’t be able to carry on. Second, we need volunteers. We always need more volunteers, and now we also desperately need experts in building, engineering and flood defences, as we have to plan for how we can deal with floods like this in the future in a different way, by rebuilding flood-resilient buidlings. Thirdly, we need money to invest in these new flood defence measures to ensure that water levels are kept at bay, especially around the on-site buildings.'

Finally, when asked what she’d like to say to everyone that helped, Amanda answered: 'Just thank you. Those words seem so inadequate, but it’s thank you.'