Play Day Pow Wow!

Grumpy was at the Play Day Pow Wow in Albert Park to celebrate National Play Day 2010. The event included archery, camp-fire cooking, head dress making, war paint, games and the Grumpy totem poles!

Halloween at Albert Park

To watch a video of the event and the Magic Garden that Grumpy created, click here

Broughton kids prepare Halloween lanterns

by Tom Rodgers, Article taken from Salford Online

Salford Park Ranger Billy Masters and the volunteers down at the Church of Nazarene in Lower Broughton were helping local children to make lanterns for their Halloween parade in Albert Park on Saturday.

The simple laterns, which will have tealights inside them for the walking parade, were built by pasting tissue paper onto wooden sticks, which were soaked overnight to make them taut and strong.

As Billy says, the children also produced toadstools, bats and other spooky Halloween items to display on the night with GRUMPY – the Greater Manchester Play Resources Unit.

Around 50 children are expected to the Halloween walk through Albert Park in Lower Broughton on Saturday night, with the parade starting at 5pm and finishing at 7pm. There is also a pre-event party planned for the local children, from 3pm to 5pm.

The Church of Nazarene is currently open on a Monday and Tuesday for local families to bring down their children for a place to hang out and play, taking the pressure off mums and dads to find childcare for them in the afternoons or after school.

It's a wonderful place, but it's completely unfunded at the moment and oversubscibed, obviously. Out of everything going on there, this is the only thing that needs to change.

Make Time for Play, Albert Park, Salford

National Play Day at Albert Park

Life's a Beach...in Salford, (article taken from Salford Online)

Children will soon be digging out their buckets and spades to build sandcastles on Salford's first beach next week.

14 tonnes of sand from Wolverhampton will be laid at Albert Park in Broughton on 6 August to build the man-made beach.

The beach is being organised by Salford City Council's park rangers and GRUMPY (Greater Manchester Play Resources Centre) to celebrate national Playday to encourage children to get out and play.

The focus of this year's Give us a go! campaign is to promote challenging and adventurous play opportunities and to make parks and open spaces good places to play.

The sand is being supplied by a quarry and is specially made so it's safe for children to play in.

Traditional seaside entertainment will include a Punch and Judy show and donkey rides.

There will also be a performance from Artizani, a bouncy castle, face painting stalls and space hopper football.

The beach will be there for one day only and after the event the sand will be reused in park and allotments in the city.

Councillor Keith Mann, lead member for the environment at Salford City Council said: "We've never done anything like this before and it's nice to be able to put on something a bit different for people of all ages to enjoy this summer."

The beach will be open from 1 until 4pm and entry is free.

Photos From National Play Day 2009

Everyone Can Play!

Grumpy launches EveryOne Can Play Programme on the Beach in Salford. It’s a lottery win for play in Salford Grumpy is one of the many projects across Salford set to deliver open access, free play opportunities in parks and open spaces across Claremont, Weaste and Winton for children and young people from ages 5 to 12 years. Inclusive play and leisure activities for children and young people with a disability living in Salford will also take place in the holidays and after school. For programmes infomation contact Project Manager ruthn@grumpy.org.uk for information.

Broughton, My Story

Broughton, My Story is a special project working with the Broughton community involving resident groups, families, youth groups, children and young people - who all assisted in producing a photo montage and stories weaved into pieces of ordinary household objects transforming into unique works of art. A model town children and young people want to be in, an art mural for Albert Park’s Changing Room and a very special book of stories.