A couple of weeks ago I was approached by a Mr Tim Bleasdale. His wife Sam and he had submitted an article on a project they were working on to the local media, and wanted to know if we would be interested in publishing it too. As the article concerned Polemi and was about an ongoing Community Project, I was very interested indeed. So I arranged to come down with my camera and drone to film and photograph what they had been up to. Without further ado, I will hand you over to Tim and Sam.

FROM SMALL ACORNS

In the village of Polemi on the Vouni Panagias wine trail, the community spirit is flowing. On a small plot of land loaned by the Polemi village council adjacent to the local Corner Cafe Bar, a garden project is under construction.

The story begins with the formation of a monthly quiz & Facebook group called the Polemi Quizzers. Since it’s formation in October 2021,the group has raised nearly 2000 euros for various local good causes. The beneficiaries include St. Michaels hospice, friends hospice, PASYCAF, and various animal charities such as Tala cats, stray haven Alex’s farm of strays, even the local ladies volleyball team has benefited.

An idea was suggested that we try to do something for our village, after some discussion it was decided that with money raised we could purchase a bench for the community. But the question was, where would the bench go in order to benefit the whole village?

Step in Yiannos & Antonis Doloros owners of the corner cafe bar, who approached the local council, who in turn allowed us to develop a plot of land in the village.

So it began. Raising money through the monthly quizzes & a Halloween ball, which was a great success, raising a total of 570 euros.

Donated materials, great expertise & hard work by local volunteers has seen the Polemi garden project take shape.

Donated timber and the joinery skills of Dave Seddon allowed for a picnic table, a bench together with a kissing seat to be made free of charge. This freed up the money raised to be used to provide the materials to create access to the plot of land and create planting beds and hard standings for the seating areas for all year round use.

Volunteers John Duckworth, Dave Seddon Mick Kempton Wesley Whittaker David Green and Alan Lovejoy have worked miracles in providing all the hard labour.

With work progressing, donations have been flooding in from all parts of the village community, for plants, irrigation pipes, formasol etc. making it truly a community garden. Demetria Theodorou from the corner cafe bar has been instrumental in keeping the volunteers fed & watered during their hard work.

We are now in the process of asking the villagers to name the garden.

We hope in the future that we can call on the local kindergarten children to decorate the access steps when the walls & planting is complete.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have been involved in the community garden, either by their hard work, kind donations or attending the monthly quizzes.

Special thanks to those already mentioned including their better halves who have allowed them to donate their time for such a worthwhile cause.