It's not all spreadsheets and calculators in the merry land of innocent finance.
Last week, the whole Finance team spent a day at Kew Riverside Primary School helping the children to build an allotment on the school field so that they can grow their own veg and maybe some bee friendly flowers. Next thing you know they'll be putting the veg in pots (that rings a bell).
But it wasn't all gardening. We also did a spot of shed building too with Rob and Lynne (crowned master shed builders).
We thought the shed would be handy for storing all the gardening tools but the children thought it was more useful for a sneaky game of 'How many people can you fit in a shed at one time without it falling over?'. If anyone is interested the record so far is 10.
And with the help of lots of little hands (sorry about the paint on their school uniforms) we transformed a plain old boring white wall...
... into a beautiful mural that the children designed.
That's Roberta in the red T shirt. She's in the Finance team and not a pupil in case anyone was unsure.
We figure friendly finance folk couldn't have done any of this without the amazing help of Gareth Miller from the Open Living Company and Paul Munckenbeck from M&S Power Hire. They both donated their time, expertise and lots of materials to our little project at no cost.
They kept us on track on the day and rallied their suppliers to help as well.
Big thanks also go to John at Brewers for the paint, everyone at Alsfords for the timber and Nick from Motive8 for putting us in touch with Gareth.
Here's Gareth and Paul looking tired but happy after a hard day's work. They aren't used to grafting.
Paul even let Lou B (aka The Stig) have a go on his digger.
Thanks to Debbie and everyone at Kew Riverside Primary School. Maybe you could all drop in to see us at Fruit Towers one day?
We'll send a grassy van round to pick you up.
We loved the grassy van and are looking forward to our next joint project together.
Best wishes to you all. xx
Posted by: Debbie Knight | June 25, 2010 at 02:27 PM
Came across an article in FT House and Home (July 10th/11th) that may interest you and Kew Riverside? It's title is 'Good grades in spades' and includes research by the RHS that children who garden will do better at school promoting the benefits of gardening to help children focus. Take a look?
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/254b063e-8a30-11df-bd30-00144feab49a.html
Posted by: Judith | July 21, 2010 at 08:52 AM
I don't usually spend a lot of time online reading blogs or article unless the are about football or cycling. So this quite the unexpected bonus to come across this post.
Posted by: Bike Glove | March 08, 2011 at 07:48 AM
I just recently began looking for new blogs on the latest gardening plans. Many of my best tools were located by just googling. Although this article wasn't quite exactly what I was searching for, It has a few fine gardening related hints...
Posted by: Gardener | March 08, 2011 at 07:58 AM