In the photo:
Here is Ella Carzana getting her green fingers dirty in the dedicated children’s plot at Willingdon Trees Community Centre! Ella is one of the volunteers for the Trees Toddlers Allotment and helps run this new children’s gardening group with lead volunteer Rose Blundell.
What did your volunteers do?
Rose Blundell and Ella Carzana are Community Volunteers at Willingdon Trees Community Centre and both are a fantastic asset to the Centre.
Ella is lead volunteer for Crafty Trees Family Craft Club and during the pandemic. When the club wasn’t able to meet, she created and distributed craft packs to local families registered as club members.
Rose had helped at our community events and then put her hand-up to be one of our Help Point volunteers during the first national lockdown, shopping and befriending vulnerable community members.
With support from Centre and staff and a Sparks grant from the Making it Happen project, both Ella and Rose are now also volunteering their time to run a new children’s gardening club – the Trees Toddler Allotment.
How did your volunteers make a difference?
Rose says:
“Our Toddlers Allotment is such a joy – both for us volunteers and the families. We love watching the toddlers’ faces when they squish soil in their hands, seeing their excitement when they pick tomatoes or hunt for bugs and insects. I felt proud for supporting our residence during the pandemic. I got to know so many people through phone chats that I would not have met otherwise. I could really feel the difference it made to them. Our craft club is always booked up. I think the adults enjoy making things as much as the kids do!”
