Volunteering day October 2008

By Holly Foat, responsibletravel.com

It’s that time again, time that we at responsibletravel.com abandon our desks for a day and get outside in the elements and do our bit for the local community in the Brighton area. This time our volunteering day took us to the outskirts of Angmering to Chestnut Tree House, the only children’s hospice in Sussex.

On a rather soggy Wednesday morning, the responsibletravel.com team made their way to Chestnut Tree House, for some gardening. With our gardening gloves and waterproof trousers, we were all ready and raring to go, despite the drizzle because we were about to start work preparing the ground on which a garden will be created by The Body Shop to celebrate the life of the late, great Anita Roddick.

Anita Roddick was a good friend of responsibletravel.com which makes this project all the more close to our hearts. Anita was an inspiration to many of us and one of the original supporters of responsibletravel.com. By helping to create a special garden area in the children’s hospice, we’re hoping that we honour the great work that Anita did and help provide a serene and relaxing area for the children and families at the hospice to enjoy.

The first task was some ground clearance. The land was very overgrown with scrubs and reeds dominating the area and swamping the stagnant pond. Armed with shears, a couple of strimmers, several rakes and two wheel barrows we set to work pruning, chopping and clearing our way through the tangle of weeds.

Clearing away some of the reeds and bulrushes from the pond was unpleasant work as the water was stale and smelly and in desperate need of some aerating plants, but we didn’t let this stop us! We followed the cutting with some painting of the fences, picking up the cleared plants and creating a compost heap bigger than me!

After a hard days work we were rewarded with a lovely cup of tea and some chocolate cake, very kindly provided for us by the hospice. Even though it was a fairly large patch of land, many hands made light work of it and by working together we got it all cleared within the day and ready for planting. Plus, we all had a great day out of the office and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

If you know of anywhere we can help out and make a difference to the environment or the local community in the Brighton area on our next volunteering day please send your suggestions to Lyn@responsibletravel.com.