Helping the Environment

Helping the Environment

Our Grade 6 REEFies were back at Cottage for the second time this year and it was a delight to have them back. It had felt so long since the first program. Both kids and the programs team were excited for the week ahead. The REEF program is all about building resilience, learning new skills and being a part of the local community.

The activity that was planned for the Thursday ticked all those boxes. The REEFies were introduced to a group of local volunteers that call themselves the ‘Weed Warriors’. The Weed Warriors do important work in persevering and maintaining the local flora out the back of Cottage.

After a quick debrief on what weeds they were looking for our REEFies rolled up their sleeves and braved the cold elements to give this important local group a much needed hand. ‘Oh my gosh there are so many weeds along here!’ ‘Look how many I have pulled out already!’ The REEFies did a great job in identifying and extracted as many weeds as they could find. They worked together in teams taking turns in walking branches and clumps of weeds back to the dump site.

The REEFies also removed rubbish from along the track and down towards the Cottage Beach, telling us how important it is to look after our waterways and that they all have been learning about the environment at school.

A shout ran out that someone had found something exciting while weeding. ‘It’s a skateboard!’ Everybody rushed over to see it and couldn’t believe that someone would get rid of a perfectly good skateboard. ‘We should donate it to someone.’ Our REEFies show remarkable maturity and kindness and we are all excited for them to progress through our REEF program.

After an hour and a half of solid weeding it was time for a photo in front of the massive pile of weeds and hot Milos in out of the cold!