Our Day Volunteering at Lilford Park (and Playing Disc Golf!)

We’ve ventured outdoors for a day of voluntary graft again - this time at Lilford Park in Leigh.
It was a corporate volunteering day a long time in the making. We approached Friends of Lilford Park (FoLP), Wigan Council and Manchester Disc Golf and asked if they had any park maintenance tasks suitable for members of the DMR Office Team (we’re not the ones who do the construction training at DMR).
“We’re quality on computers but terrible with tools. How can we help in the park?” we said. “Find something glamourous on your maintenance checklist and we’re all yours”.
And so, after months of tough negotiations, we settled on painting the public toilets.
(we also did some work on Lilford Park disc golf course - more on that below.) ⬇️
𝐈𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐯𝐥𝐨𝐠, 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝:
- An interview with Iain McDougall (National Director of The British Disc Golf Association).
- An interview with David Sykes (Chairman of FoLP)
- Great disc golf shots (thanks Iain and Nathan)
- Bad disc golf shots (boo DMR Training)
- Strangely dressed people loitering in public toilets.
- Lilford Park at its sunny best.
#Volunteering #LilfordPark #DMRTraining #DiscGolf #Community #RockNStroll
FoLP ➡️ / folp.leigh
Manchester Disc Golf ➡️ / manchesterdiscgolf
Rock N Stroll ➡️ rocknstroll.or...
(Lilford Park, July 20th 2024, 11am - 10:30pm - don't miss it! 🎸 🥁 🎷🎤 🍻 🥂)
Construction Training & NVQs ➡️ dmr-training.c...
𝐀 𝐟𝐞𝐰 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜 𝐠𝐨𝐥𝐟…
Ever wondered what those weird basket things are in Lilford Park woods? And what’s it got to do with DMR Training? We’ll answer both those questions with an anecdote.
Back in the DMR Day of 2016 when we provided construction apprenticeships for the young folk of Leigh, we teamed up with FoLP and volunteered a group of our groundwork trainees for a landscaping and paving project in the park.
Whilst DMR’s groundworkers were levelling Lilford’s land (or, in the case of less able apprentices, terrorizing its terra firma) the DMR Marketing Team was flinging frisbees across the plains of Longford Park in Stretford. It was a brief and ultimately aborted attempt by the DMR Marketing Team to master a curious new sport called Disc Golf.
Returning to Leigh, the DMR Marketing Team - now unofficially self-styled as the DMR Frisbee Team - promptly dispatched an email to FoLP’s Chairman, David Sykes, imploring him to bring disc golf to Lilford Park.
“Disc golf is similar to real golf, David; except for three major differences,” wrote the DMR Frisbee Team. “A frisbee is used instead of a ball, whilst a basket replaces the hole. And to the sport’s credit, the disc version of golf does not appear to be a refuge for wallies with trolleys. The DMR Marketing Team recommends disc golf to the people of Lilford Park and Leigh.”
The months and years rolled by. Trees dumped and regrew leaves. The trainee-installed paving slabs kissed the soles of thousands of Leyther feet. The sun ariseth, the sun goeth down, and the DMR Marketing Team quietly forgot about the summer of disc golf and that hasty email to FoLP.
Then, one morning, whilst labouring on a jog through Lilford Park woods, the DMR Marketing Team spied mysterious basket contraptions nestled amongst the foliage. “My god! There’s another one! And another! They’re flowering throughout the woods like daffodils in early spring,” wheezed the DMR Marketing Team. “Are they…disc golf baskets?”
And so they were.
Thanks to a decade-long collaboration between Iain McDougall, Chairman Sykes, FoLP, Wigan Council, Manchester Disc Golfers and Professional Disc Golf Association Europe, Lilford Park is now home to a woodland disc golf course - one that’s touted as having the potential to be among the finest in the country.