Central Co-op supports the Woodland Games
Shaz Rhaman, Western Member and Community Council member writes about the Woodland Games.
September the 9th 2023 saw the second iteration of the Woodland Games; a nature based, family sports day at the Hazelwell Park in Stirchley South Birmingham. The Woodland Games began with a loud and colourful procession from Artefact, a workers Co-op on Stirchley High Street. The process entered Hazelwell Park to the main riff from eye of the tiger played on keyboard by Western MCC member Shaz Rahman.
Once everybody has entered the park and settled down the Woodland Games began. Two games were played. The first was called Blade Runner and involved teams running from one end of the park to the other to collect a giant blade of grass that they could only carry with claws. The participants were serenaded by the Artefact House Band playing the end credits theme song from the film “Blade Runner”.
The second game known as Command and Conker, where teams fired giant, papier mache Conkers from a Trebuchet at a target far away. Not all the Conkers were fired successfully, which meant that the Conkers that were launched successfully were cheered all the louder. The Artefact House band angrily played the “Hell March” from Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 to hype those taking part in this game up.
The Woodland Games were wrapped up with a medal ceremony and a planting of a tree in the park. The participants wore their medals proudly and definitely deserved it by taking part on the hottest day of the year. The Artefact House band soothed the medallists with and off kilter rendition of Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven is a Place on Earth.”
Central Co-op supported the games with a stall, where we handed out fruit and spoke to those attending about Central Co-op membership as we have several stores in the local area to the park within South Birmingham. Central Co-op also provided funding towards the event from the Western MCC region.
A great day was had by all in the sun. The local community came together to celebrate nature and partake in sports games that require co-operation to succeed.