July 26 was National Tree Day, Australia’s largest community tree planting and nature protection event. National Tree Day is a call for all Australians to put their hands in the earth and give back to their community.
At our Follyfoot Farm by Busy Bees Service, we witnessed first-hand the most wonderful sense of community spirit, as children, Educators and volunteers joined together on National Tree Day to design, build and plant an incredible Bush Tucker garden.
This event could not have been possible without the help and assistance of several key people and organisations from all over the community.
Firstly, Tracey Howie, our Indigenous consultant who guided the Follyfoot team through this process every step of the way. Tracey was able to attend the event to present the Welcome to Country and also assist with the planting of the garden. Thank you, Tracey!
Transport NSW, who made a very generous donation of $500 towards this event, which enabled Follyfoot Farm to purchase over 100 plants for the garden! On the day, their incredible team of volunteers helped the Educators, children and Families of Follyfoot Farm with this large scale planting experience. The children loved the presentation from Phillipa on water conservation, and are very excited about the take home seedling packs that were so generously donated.
The generosity and community spirit didn’t stop there. A big thanks must go to the DeVincenzo Family, who we are so lucky to have enrolled at Follyfoot Farm. Luke, Renata and Darcie all invested so much of their personal time designing the garden, sourcing plants and delivering them to the Service. The team at Follyfoot Farm are so grateful for your generosity and assistance.
Our wonderful team of Educators worked tirelessly to plan and prepare for this day. Not only volunteering their own time to help build the garden, but also assisting to ensure the event was a success and ran smoothly. To prepare for the day, Farmer Ben pre-dug over 100 holes to make planting the trees much faster and easier for the children, and he also cooked up a storm on the BBQ for all of the volunteers. Thank you, Farmer Ben!
Our lovely Eductor Karen baked the most delicious Lemon Myrtle cookies as a thank you gift for our volunteers to take home and enjoy.
Finally, our incredible Eductor Janine, who was the driving force behind the vision and construction of the garden.
We know that all these people and many more worked tirelessly to plan this event, and we are so proud of the magic that has been created in the Outdoor Classroom at Follyfoot Farm.
We can’t wait to see what delicious creations will be created with ingredients from the Bush Tucker garden!
