Concord’s vibrant new ‘Spoonville’ village is bringing the community together – one spoon at a time – under the creative power of St Mary’s Catholic Primary School.
Students, teachers and their families have kick-started the newest example of the wellbeing project at Queen Elizabeth Park.
The handmade ‘villages’ of wooden spoons that first sprouted on nature strips in the UK have brought welcome enjoyment to the community, especially for children, amid COVID and has become a lockdown craze for kids and adults alike.
The Concord Spoonville village is registered as number 469 of the global initiative, which began as an imaginative Englishwoman’s way of cheering up her Berkshire neighbours during the first COVID lockdown in 2020.
Today there are now Spoonvilles all over the world with new Spoony characters popping up every day.
The rules of a Spoonville village are simple: choose rain-resistant materials to decorate your spoon, place your spoony character in the village during your exercise trip, feel free to visit the village, add to it and, most importantly, have fun.
Spoony residents of the St Mary’s village include Batman, Prince, Where’s Wally and a bright array of people and animal-inspired denizens.
Year 2 teacher Antonia Geary helped bring the St Mary’s village to life, even seeking City of Canada Bay Council’s approval to place it in Queen Elizabeth Park to ensure it was a true community-building exercise.
Mrs Geary said participation was purely optional and there had been a lot of positive feedback.
“We wanted to spread happiness to the local community and encourage all members of the local community to also add their spoons,” she said.
“Some of the children have started to send photos of their spoons.
“There’s a bit of hype and excitement around it. They like the fact that it is our Spoonville.”
St Mary’s Villa aged care residents will also add spoons to the village and St Mary’s Concord Out of School Hours Child Care Centre (SMOOSH) have made the activity part of their program.
The village will be relocated to a garden at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School when the project ends.
St Mary’s Spoonville will be at Queen Elizabeth Park in Concord until the end of October 2021.