From Earth First! Action Update . November 2002 (revised)
A few weeks ago the Sumac Centre and friends went for a picnic in woods near Nottingham. It was the first time in the year and a half since the closure of the old Rainbow Centre that almost everyone got together without the pressure of getting the new centre open. Not everyone was there - a few people were back at the centre running the cafe and the Veggies crew were off doing an event as they almost always are. Everyone played rounders and an amazing, amusing game of three frisbees and football was invented. We sat down to a vegan picnic and much wine was consumed. After sunset, a fire kept the day going into the early hours.
The Sumac Centre is finally open, meeting the only deadline we have managed to keep - to open the weekend before Glastonbury and the summer exodus to fields across the country. Volunteers were up til early hours the week before finishing off the building work. We finally finished at 4am the night before our opening day, when over 100 people came for free tea and cakes, a kids' ceilidh by Monster Massive and a bring-and-buy sale.
The vegan cafe is open three days a week (Fri-Sun 10am-6pm) and the number of customers is building up. Our library is starting to emerge from its boxes and the shock of living in garages and cellars across Nottingham. Work still needs to be completed on the bar, which we hope will be open for Christmas*. And thoughts have turned to our out-buildings, which are derelict and full of everything we had to get out of the way to open the main building. In our heads is a new grand ecologically sound office and workshop block.The volunteers who have been working on the Sumac project for two years (seven days a week at some points) are exhausted, but new volunteers are starting to come in to turn this part of our dream into reality.
* actually March 2003 - Thursday, Friday & Saturday 6.30pm - 11pm and Sunday 12noon - 5pm.
More information from www.veggies.org.uk/sumac or email sumac@veggies.org.uk.
Visit the Suamc Centre at 245 Gladstone Street, Forest Fields, Nottingham, NG7 6HX.
Phone: 0845 458 9595 (local rate number from the Phone Co-op).
Donations and loans welcome.
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