Blogger: Joan Childs, Site Manager for Rye Meads nature reserve
The girls of St Margaret’s school in Bushy, Hertfordshire, have raised a whopping £650 for their local RSPB nature reserve – Rye Meads! The girls from St Margaret’s, which is an independent school for girls aged 4-18, raised the money through lots of fun activities that they ran over the last couple of months.
I was invited over to the school to chat to the girls about the UK conservation work of the RSPB during their very impressive sounding Infant and Preparatory Celebration of Achievement Day. Ready to be the prize giver during the day, I was very nicely surprised by the girls presented me with a prize, the cheque for £650!
I had a great day and we are extremely grateful for the hard work of all the girls supporting the reserve. We hope that more of them and their families will visit the wildlife on the reserve during the summer holidays.
Celia Brothers, Head of the Preparatory Department at St Margaret’s said, “The children raised the money through a sponsored spell and mufti day. Joan’s talk was lovely and hopefully Rye Meads will receive many new visitors over the coming months.”
Whether it is young local champions raising money for us or local volunteers giving their valuable time – this is how we get our work done and creating little bits of paradise in the Hertfordshire countryside.
Here you can see me with some of our fabulous RSPB volunteers. These volunteers come along every Tuesday and Thursday to help look after the reserve. Keeping a reserve special for wildlife, and for people, takes a lot of time and effort. These are the people that do anything from repairing hides, to making benches, cutting vegetation, making tern rafts and more!
Our Stepping up for Nature awards celebrate these sorts of people in the East of England. So if you know someone or a keen group of people that you feel do an amazing job for nature then nominate them here by downloading the Stepping Up for Nature Awards application form.