Our Activities
We believe that it is important to bring people together to connect and have fun. We also want to encourage people to reflect, learn and make changes in their own lives and to engage with our lovely green spaces.
SinCH runs two regular monthly social events – coffee morning and an evening Green Drinks social.
We also organise activities such as Green Walks, talks and films and our AGM.
Finally, our members are active in helping improve biodiversity through the Parish Council’s Help Nature Thrive campaign.
Plastic Free Shopping & Recycling coffee mornings
We run a community event at the Lamb and Flag, Little Haywood on the third Wednesday of the month between 10.30am and 12.00pm. Please come along for a chat and for drinks, etc:
- Enjoy drinks and cakes.
- Bring your difficult to recycle items (i.e. those which can’t go in the blue bins) – check the list of items taken here.
- You can also recycle old phones and computer equipment and we will pass them onto FreeIT – a local not-for-profit business which will wipe your details and upgrade the kit and pass them on to people who could not afford to buy new.
- Swap information about how to reuse, repair and upcycle.
- Find local plants and vegetables in season.
- Bring plants and seeds to swap.
For more information about the event please download the details here.
We have introduced a “hot spot” at each event for a quick 15 minute update on an aspect of Sustainable Living.
- Wed 17th Jan 2024– The Big Garden Birdwatch.
- Wed 21st February – Rugeley Community Garden
- Wed 20th March – Seedy Wednesday! Bring your spare seed to swap plus a hot spot on the importance of seed diversity.
- Wed 17th April – What we learned from our visit to Veolia’s Waste to Energy plant. (Summary here.)
- Wed 15th May – The Stafford Castle Herb Garden + Herbs and their Uses.
- Wed 19th June – Composting Tips.
- Wed 17th July – Plans for SinCH’s new allotment plot.
- Wed 21 August – No coffee morning.
Green Drinks, Walks and other events
Regular Evening Social Events, nature-themed walks and other events.
A monthly Green Drinks social evening takes place at the Sports and Social club in Great Haywood on the 1st Tuesday of the month between 7.30 p.m. and 9.00 p.m.
This is a great chance to meet people from the community for a social discussion, ask questions, share ideas and do hands on practical activities. We normally have a speaker to help us along the way. These are informal, non-political meetings that involve people of all ages so please join us.
Under Covid restrictions we were unable to meet indoors so we started socially-distanced Green Walks walks outside and these proved so popular that we have kept developing these. In 2024 these will focus on a closer connection to nature and so enhance our work on Helping Nature Thrive.
Our 2024 Timetable
Tues February 6th Film – The Economics of Happiness
Saturday February 17 – Make your own Nest Box Workshop (as part of Nest Box week) 1.45-3.30 at the Memorial Hall.
Tues March 5th Natural Household Cleaning Products + Natural Soaps.
Tues April 2nd Re-thinking Food – why the global food system is in trouble and how we can produce more food locally.
Tues 9th and Thurs 11th April – Guided Trips to Veolia Incinerator at Four Ashes – See notes here.
Tues 5th May Let’s share Positive stories for a change!
Tues 4th June – Instead of Green Drinks we are running an evening Guided Walk to the unique Chartley Moss – for details see here.
Sat 8th June – SinCH will have a stall at the Community Fete at Jubilee Fields focussing on reducing plastic bottle consumption and how to support Hedgehogs.
Sat 10th Aug – Ron Rock will again run the popular Bee Safari for us at the Wolesley Centre – details to follow. To check out Ron’s great Green Drinks talk on all things Bees here.
Sat 17th Aug – Jane Rock from the Staffs Bat Group will run a late evening Bat Walk for us – details to follow.
Sun 8th Sept – SinCH will have a stall at the annual Fruit & Veg Show focussing on reducing plastic bottle consumption and how to support Hedgehogs.
Sat 18th Oct – Our popular Fungi Foray will return this year – details to follow.
Sun 27th Oct – We will be taking part in the Big Green Walk in aid of the Wildlife Trusts – details to follow.
To see more info about all of our previous events please see here.
Help Nature Thrive
In March 2022 the Parish Council has asked SinCH to advise them on Sustainability in general and to help make their Green Infrastructure Plan happen.
This work has now developed into a local Help Nature Thrive campaign. For more details on this and how you can get involved please click here.
SinCH’s Open Evening and AGM
SinCH is a community-based association and functions as a network of individuals who support the group’s objectives. Our ethos is one of openness, inclusive co-operation and discussion. Every year we hold an AGM to report back on what we have been doing, to discuss what we might do in the future as well as being transparent about how we raise money and what we spend it on. The event may also have a speaker on a relevant topic.
Our 2023 AGM took place on 11 October – for more details please see here.
