Operation Greenhouse
A 1.8m x 1.8m polycarbonate sheeting Greenhouse was delivered to school by Morrisons in Spring 2009 following a successful campaign by children to collect over 6,000 tokens. By the end of the summer it was clear that some sort of base for the greenhouse would need to be constructed. Mark Nesbitt volunteered to coordinate a project to give the school much more than that! He suggested the idea to built a fenced enclosure and raised beds. An appeal for donations of materials and volunteers for the construction was circulated in the school newsletter.
Parents who donated materials included:
- Derek Lott - most of the wood was reclaimed from a barn that Derek had recently dismantled and donated.
- Dick and Sheila Cleave donated preservative, roofing felt, nails & gate hinges.
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- Amanda & Geoff Wood - donated a gate for the fenced enclosure
- Sharon & Geoff Panter - donated ballast
- Diana Vanstone - donated cement
Lots of work went on behind the scenes, ready for the construction days...
- Carole Smith negotiated a £50 reduction on an order to RGB and the total cost of the work to the school was about £350 - a saving of well over £1,000 on materials alone.
- the timber was painted on Derek's farm by Anna Houghton, Carole Smith and Neil Leonard.
- the fence pickets were hand machined by Larry Sanders and his father at the Milky Way.
- work on site at school was carried out over 7 consecutive Saturdays in October and November. The workers include Dick and Tessa Cleave, Derek Lott, Larry Sanders, Neil & Tom Leonard and Mark & Fergal Nesbitt (boosted by a very welcome 4 o'clock cup of tea from Jen Burnett).
We all had a great time working on it and had an celebration evening (complete with a spoof construction awards ceremony) in early December.
All that's left to do is add a bit more topsoil when the weather improves before our Grand Opening later in the spring.
(with thanks to Larry and Mark for the photos!)