• A NEGLECTED and overgrown area of ground at Crossroads Day Centre, Weymouth has been cleared and replanted by volunteers, creating a peaceful area for adults at the Centre to relax and learn outdoors.

This work has been funded by the Weymouth and Portland Partnership Communities for Health Funding and the Partnership for Older People Project, and generously sponsored by Gould Garden Centre, Weymouth .

Volunteers from the Phoenix Legacy, Portland YOI, Weymouth College and local communities have been helping create the new garden which includes a shrubbery, pergola, vegetable plot and raised beds.

The project was initiated by the Phoenix Legacy, a voluntary community organisation inspired by the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Its aim is to create a sustainable legacy for older people in Dorset by helping them to be more active in mind, body and spirit. The Crossroads garden is designed to provide a safe, shaded, stimulating and sustainable garden area for the Centre’s service providers and service users. ‘Our hope is that this will enrich the lives and improve the health and wellbeing of this specific group of learning disabled adults’ said Rosie Barfoot, project founder. ‘It has been fantastic the help we have had and the generosity of people.’ It is hoped to set up a Friends of Crossroads Garden, so that the work can be continued and further social contact is encouraged.

The garden will be opened officially at 2.15 pm on March 31st by the High Sheriff, the Hon T J Palmer.

To find out more or offer your services, contact Rosie Barfoot, on 01305 261540 or email phoenixlegacy@live.com

  • PUPILS and staff at Wyke Infant School and Nursery joined in with an attempt to break the world record for the most people signing in BSL the same song at the same time. 239 children took part, aged from four to seven years old.

The event was organised by SignHealth, a national charity dedicated to the health and wellbeing of deaf people. As well as taking part the school also invited donations to pass on to the charity.