Trees the Day

It was a decent sized group in the end who gathered to meet Lizzie and Simeon from the Trees for Streets team.

The sun put in appearance; the Museum Gardens looked beautiful, the project interesting, and then brought beautifully to life by Simeon and Lizzie.

Why trees on streets matter

We started with an explanation about Trees for Streets: why we were there; the role of the lowly tree, and how more of them can benefit our beautiful borough. We learned about how the scheme is one of sponsorship, in partnership with the council, and how multiple households can club together for a tree to make this doable and affordable for all.

All a-ward!

Then the serious business of the leafleting strategy was revealed: divided up into two wards, using our local knowledge of house-filled streets, we were divided into teams, along with highlighters and maps and dispatched to five areas of Bow and Bethnal Green.

We blitzed road after road, chatting to interested residents along our way. Those who headed further East managed to get a bit more running in, ending up with a decent step count for the day.

Mine's a flat white

We arrived back at base at 8 (some of us, who insisted on squeezing in "just that last half a street" a little after). And so the remaining leaflets were carefully laid out in team piles on our weighing bench where our flawless, highly sensitive adjudication system ascertained the thinnest pile was indeed Team Stepney, consisting of just a two-man effort of Johnny and Leo. What work. The lucky team won a £20 voucher for the lovely Chiringuito summer meeting spot, to help fuel a future Flat White Saturday for the boys.

The after-party

We posed for some winning team pics, savoured the last of tonight's Cadbury's Heroes, before bidding farewell to Lizzie and Simeon, with some of the thirsty leafleters heading off for a post-task beer.

Well done, team. Massive congratulations on finding the perfect streets, covering multiple miles, turning out on a warm, free August Monday to get on board with this splendid scheme.

Until next time.