The girls of St Margaret’s school in Bushey, 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 activities they ran over the last couple of months.
Joan Childs, Rye Meads’ Site Manager, was invited over to the school to give at talk about the work of the RSPB and Rye Meads reserve, during the schools Infant and Preparatory Celebration of Achievement Day. Joan was also prize giver during the day – but to Joan’s surprise the girls presented her with a prize, a cheque for £650!
Joan had a great day, she said, “It was a very enjoyable day, and we are extremely grateful for the hard work of all the girls supporting the reserve. We hope that they will visit and see the reserve for themselves.”
Celia Brothers, Head of the Preparatory Department at St Margaret’s said, “The children raised the money through a sponsored spell and mufti day. The children and parents found Joan's talk very interesting and informative and many parents said how much they enjoyed it. In particular, we were all fascinated by the amazing 'snake' butterfly wings [Joan showed some slides of some of the amazing wildlife in the world - including butterflies!]. Hopefully Rye Meads will receive many new visitors over the coming months.”
Picture by Keith Bedford
Here you can see Joan with some of our fabulous RSPB management 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 (including the reedbeds), making tern rafts and more! The money that St Margaret’s have kindly donated will help the RSPB keep Rye Meads a special place.You can help keep your local reserve special by volunteering some of your time – there’s something for everyone, have a look at the volunteering pages on the RSPB website: www.rspb.org.uk/volunteering