Good News Stories

Malone Road Tree Conservation Day

Our Handy Helpers have been getting their hands dirty supporting the Sans Souci Residents’ Association planting trees and cleaning up the Lennoxvale Tree Nursery.

The day started off on a positive note with the sun shining and rain nowhere to be found as our volunteers walked the short journey from the Students’ Union to the Lennoxvale Tree Nursery on the Malone Road. Eileen from Sans Souci Residents’ Association and Chris from The Conservation Volunteers were there to greet us and they started the morning off by showing us some of the trees that were planted by Handy Helpers previously. It was great to be able to see the fruits of our labour (excuse the pun!) from a previous Handy Helpers event before we did some planting of our own.

We soon got stuck in moving gooseberry plants out of flower beds and into the ground to create a bush. The rest of the morning involved planting acorns, maple seeds and chestnuts, some general clean up and learning the difference between a shovel and a spade (who knew!). At 12:30 we took a hard earned rest and went back to the Students’ Union for some lunch before we got back down to business in the afternoon.

Despite the odd rain shower, a great day was had by all made a little better by the fact that we were also doing our bit for the environment. We look forward to getting back to the nursery and supporting Sans Souci Residents’ Association and The Conservation Volunteers again soon.

Queen's Big Give

Queen’s Big Give is a campus-wide end-of-the-year donation and recycling campaign, which encourages students moving out of halls or privately rented accommodation to donate their unwanted reusable goods, such as clothes, shoes, books, CDs/DVDs and kitchenware to local charities.

In May 2018, Queen’s University and Students’ Union teamed up with the British Heart Foundation in an effort to reduce waste and raise essential funds for cardiovascular research.  The campaign ran from 14 May - 9 June, with collection points across campus and three donation sorting workshops at Elms Village accommodation.

Queen’s student volunteers helped prepare hundreds of unwanted belongings for shipment to local British Heart Foundation charity shops, supporting their work and reducing the amount of waste going to landfill.

Even in its first year, the campaign was extremely successful with over 60 large bags of unwanted belongings donated by students leaving privately rented properties, and hundreds more collected from University accommodation.

While recycling is increasing on campus, Queen’s Big Give provides extra opportunities for students to recycle during the intense moving-out period at the end of term, and raise funds for a good cause at the same time.