CSV Action Earth^TM Awards 2008
supported by Morrisons Supermarkets

[Skip to the winners 2007]

Why not enter your project for an award?

Once you have completed your project for CSV Action Earth, you have the chance to win a cash prize to spend on your chosen project. Divided into five categories (see details below), five prizes of £300 and five prizes of £100 are available to winners and runners up of each category. The deadline for completed applications is 10th August 2008 and winning projects will be notified in September. The application form can be found in the Project Feedback Pack in the downloads section. Please note that only those projects receiving £50 grants from Morrisons are eligible to enter the awards.

The categories are as follows:

1. Wackiest Project Award: award for the most unusual location or type of project
2. City Slickers Award: award for the best urban project
3. Animal Madness Award: award for the best project involving wildlife
4. Green Welly Award: award for the best rural project
5. Transformation Award: award for the best planting, restoration, recycling or clearance project

Prizes

• We are giving away 5 First Place prizes of £300 each to help develop your project
• We are giving away 5 Second Place prizes of £100 each to help develop your project

You must provide the following:

• Completed Awards Entry Form (found in your Feedback & Grant Claim Booklet)
• Photographs to support your application (please remember to take before & after pictures). Please provide photographs on CD if possible.

Entry forms must be received by 10th August 2008

The Winners 2007

Wackiest Project Award: award for the most unusual location or type of project

Compost Loo Project - 'Going Green!' - South Court Environmental, Northampton, Northamptonshire
12 volunteers

Following pre-publicity 12 people came during the day and learnt about compost toilets and joined in building one. By sundown it was complete except for the roof.

Volunteers got their hands dirty building the convenience, which transformed human waste into plant compost.

The project came about because there were no facilities for women in the garden. The toilet separates liquid and solid waste into different containers, where they will eventually be suitable to be put on the land.

The BBC came during the day and interviewed Chris who was leading on the day.

The toilet is for the benefit of the people visiting the permaculture garden and the benefit of the garden itself when the compost is ready.

Yamkela Project - Woodlands Park Friends Association, Ivybridge, Devon
31 volunteers

We built a sustainable African themed garden in an unused part of the school grounds. We were celebrating our link with a school in South Africa. ('Yamkela' means 'welcome' in Xhosa.)

The project had to be low maintenance and illustrate dry climate conditions, so we used different cobbles and stones to show the riverbed with sustainable planting and a bridge over the river.

This was an unused part of the school grounds, which is now an oasis of peace. This is an imaginative project, it raises issues of global warming with the theme of drought and sustainability, celebrates links with our partner school in South Africa and will be the motivation for encouraging art work on an African theme to decorate the garden.

City Slickers Award: award for the best urban project

Planting Extravaganza - Leeds Thomas Danby Community Education College, Leeds, West Yorkshire
20 volunteers

The staff, parents and children using the centre's crèche facilities participated in this worthwhile transformation of an unused 'weedy' area which is situated in the outdoor play area, into a growing and attractive haven for insects, mini-beasts and birds.

It thereby gave the children 'first-hand' experiences in terms of their overall development as well as encouraging them to make a positive contribution, at the same time enjoying and achieving, and also maintaining a healthy life style within a disadvantaged urban area of Leeds.

I would like to say thank you very much, for choosing us to take part in such a worthwhile initiative. The parents and their children enjoyed themselves, enormously. It was an ideal opportunity for them to be involved to develop and experience a range of social, emotional, creative and language skills. Most importantly, they enhanced the outdoor environment where the children play and learn.

Litterless Bugs - Children's Summer Club, Barnstaple, Devon
100 volunteers

Over 100 people got involved in tidying up our estate. Hedges were trimmed, weeds cleared and a mammoth litter pick took place. We worked with the local police and housing association, who co-ordinated the Action Day, provided skips and supervised teams of workers.

CSV's litter pickers were put to good use, we concentrated on the play areas, underpass and alleys. The litter pickers were also used by community police on a nearby housing estate earlier in the week and will be made available to other local groups.

Animal Madness Award: award for the best project involving wildlife

Nature Area - Ysgol Gynradd Llangynfelyn, Wrexham, Clwyd
40 volunteers

Children at Ysgol Llangynfelyn have been clearing out the school's nature pond. With a little help from the adults, the children cleaned out the existing overgrown pond, mended the safety grill, made a log garden, planted pond and marginal plants, creating a much improved nature pond.

This is what we did:

• We emptied the pond and cleaned out all the leaves and grass
• We composted the leaves
• We replaced the broken safety grill, which vandals had broken
• We dug an area next to the pond to make a bog garden
• We planted pond and marginal plants
• We filled the pond with clean water
• We are going to put water snails, newts and tadpoles in the spring from the children's gardens

As the pond is now a brilliant place to observe pond life we think the area is completely transformed. Already we found two frogs in the pond and we hope that this is just the beginning. Without the transformation the pond would be left overgrown completely.

If we were lucky enough to win we would build a deck area around the pond so that children could observe the pond and the wildlife even more.

Bugs, Bed and Breakfast - Heron Cross Allotments Association, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
18 volunteers

Our day began with separating the area with 6 medium poles. We strung 3 rows of large rope between them. We then erected a new lacewing box and painted it with attractive colours. At the front edge of the border we put 4 terracotta flowerpots with tubing going inside them (the pots are put upside down) and put them around the border for solitary bees to use. We put some bamboo log rolls in a circle and put it around some log rolls. We covered it all in soil hoping to attract bees and various other insects.

Since our event we have been given another two large logs, which have been situated in the border. We got distracted by finding various beetles and ladybirds, which we looked at carefully and talked about. A baby snail with a very pretty shell was passed around on everyone's hand and we looked at how it moved and used its eyes. I feel we achieved a good border for the bugs but also it helped the children to look carefully and appreciate the need to attract various insects to our wildlife area

Green Welly Award: award for the best rural project

4th Goring Guides Conservation & Education Project - 4th Goring (St Laurence) Guides, Angmering, West Sussex
13 volunteers

On a sunny day in March we went to our conservation campsite in Angmering to sort out a drainage system for our glade and plant some tree saplings. The reason for this was to create a hedge; both for wildlife and also to shelter our 1-acre site and education hut from view from a public footpath. A total of 13 people came to help, four of us Guides did tree planting, there were a total of 30 tress donated by the Woodland Trust. To plant the tress we were given plastic tabards to wear and then we set to work. The trees were planted in a single line 30cm apart. After the tree planting we made and positioned 2 bumblebee boxes and cleared the last of the leaves from our trail.

We learnt a lot through the morning, we now know what butchers broom and lacewings are, what our trees will look like and how big they will grow.

Lanchester Community Litter Pick - Lanchester Partnership, BLanchester, Durham
120 volunteers

Saturday March 31st was Lanchester's litter-pick day. 90 Children in the 2 primary schools made posters and talked about litter and helped litter picking. Shops, the library and community centre and cricket club helped.

Over 100 people picked litter in all parts of the Village and Parish. The area looks so much better and a feeling of co-operation and enjoyment seems to have been generated. We managed to fill over 300 black bin bags.

Transformation Award: award for the best planting, restoration, recycling or clearance project

Cadbury Hill Dew Pond Restoration - Yatton and Congresbury Wildlife Action Group, Yatton, Avon
14 volunteers

YAGWAG (Yatton and Congresbury Wildlife Action Group) restored a 200 year old stone lined pond hidden in the slopes of Cadbury Hill.

Work included excavation of the filled pond (70% filled and overgrown). Complete stone lining exposed - right to the bottom. Stone edging revealed. Pond structure and section surveyed. Existing ferns removed and replanted. Cave spider home relocated. Pond fill spread over surrounding area and put to good use. Rubbish in pond sorted and taken for recycling.

There was good team spirit - lots of feedback - positive from passers by. Now we can start restoring the lining and working towards a natural filled pond.

Clean The Green! - Mount Hawke Millennium Green, Truro, Cornwall
14 volunteers

Initial work involved clearing of brambles, weeds and litter. Planting areas were then created for the children to plant bulbs, for continuing interest.

There was interest and enthusiasm from all who took part. We shall have a clearance/maintenance day on 2nd Sunday each month. It has given our green valuable publicity and heightened its profile.

Cleaning the green has transformed everyone's experience of using it. To walk through a clean green is a real pleasure. We have now received two new bins from the council which is a lot of help.