On Saturday 16th of April, Groundwork Fukuoka held the 17th Flowerpot planting Activity which was conducted in 1996. On that day we started quite early in the morning to prepare everything until the event starts. We expected about 100 participants this year so there were a lot of things to do beforehand. Therefore we brought most of the necessary stuff we needed to the flower gardening park the day before, so that we only had to setup everything on the next day.
At 9:30 a.m. the people started gathering and after everyone was done with the accreditation, the event began prompt at 10 o´clock. It 
started off with welcoming the people and thanking them for participating. Furthermore a little instruction was given so that everybody knew how the course of the activity looks like. Then all the participants started to re-pot the seedlings one by one which were carefully grown by Midori no Machizukuri no Kai in Koga city.
During this time I helped to provide for everyone’s needs and arranged the re-potted seedlings by flower type and the participant’s group name. At approximately 12:30 o´clock all the seedlings were planted into new pots. It was surprisingly how fast and what
volume of work can be achieved by working together. About 7000 pots in total were made. After thanking them for participating and for their great work the event was officially over and everybody searched for their name tags to take home the amount of planted seedlings they ordered. When everybody was done and left, we started to clean up the place.
All in all, the entire event was a success. The activity was accompanied by a sunny weather and everyone had a great time. Consequently the meaning of this activity to connect people by gardening and planting together and learn to understand and accept each other was definitely conveyed.
Written by Marcel
Groundwork Fukuoka 