News
Schools pay tribute to their star volunteers
21-06-2008
The successful rollout of the Kitchen Garden program in each school is completely reliant on the generous Volunteers who give their time and passion to help in garden and kitchen classes. We thought we'd take a little time to highlight and commend their fantastic efforts:
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John and Chris Taylor at Eaglehawk Primary
John and Chris Taylor have spent hundreds of hours helping us in every way possible - from digging garden beds, helping in the garden, helping with cooking classes, painting all of the trims in our new kitchen, cleaning, moving tons of furniture and boxes and so and so on. This is even more special because Chris was diagnosed with cancer in February of this year and has come to volunteer whenever her health has allowed it. The wonderful news is that today she was able to tell us that her treatment and surgery has been successful and she has a wonderful prognosis.
Thanks John and Chris - Eaglehawk could not have done it without you!
From Mary-Anne Rooney, Principal
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Andrea Webster at Southmoor Primary School
Andrea has been involved in the Kitchen Garden Program since we started in 2007. She has been especially involved in the garden, volunteering for 3 classes per week. Andrea's vegetable garden expertise has been priceless and she is very generous in sharing resources, plants, seeds and knowledge. Quite often Andrea will turn up to a session with some seedlings from her home, seeds she has bought or saved, ideas for solving garden pest problems or extra garden supplies she sees we are running short of. During our school breaks Andrea has volunteered to come in weekly to maintain our garden. This has been invaluable and meant that when the children return from holidays, the garden is luscious and full of vegetables ready to harvest. Andrea also volunteers in the kitchen. She is keen to share ideas and recipes and during kitchen planning sessions has searched for recipes to use based on the vegetables available in the garden. Andrea is a keen volunteer, generous with her time and ideas and is truly a volunteer extraordinaire.
From Sarah Warren, Program Coordinator
..........Kelly Grace and Jo Rogers at Nunawading Primary School
We have so many wonderful volunteers at Nunawading. Prue Gill, a Foundation Board member, Ruth Earley a dedicated gardener and Lisa Magliano a loving mum all of whom come along to gardening classes every week. But we have to point out two mums that are exceptional and have both been a part of the garden since it began. Kelly Grace, mother of Madeleine in Year 5/6, has come along fortnightly to the garden classes for the past year. Kelly also volunteers in the kitchen on a Friday when she can. She is a former art teacher and a keen gardener. Her creativity and enthusiasm for the garden have led us to create an ongoing mural on the garden's back fence. Kelly painted a meandering magical vine along the fence that the children now add to fortnightly. The children get to paint anything they would love to have on their magical vine. Without Kelly this would not have been possible - she is always a pleasure to be around and we love that she is a part of the Kitchen Garden.
The other wonderful mum is Jo Rogers, mother of Tom in year 5/6, who has been volunteering her time each week since the garden began. Jo brings along members from her church to work solidly for two hours a week. You can only imagine how much is achieved with this extra help - they are vital to the program at Nunawading. Jo sets aside her own busy life and has dedicated her time to improve the kitchen garden and ensure its sustainability. It's lovely having Jo and the boys caring for the garden; they are a constant reminder that a little bit of hard work goes a long way. Jo also donates plants and cuttings from her own garden and helps in the garden and kitchen classes when she can spare more time. She has been very grounding for us when at times it may have seemed too overwhelming and we love her for that.
From Lisa Camilleri, Garden Specialist
..........Jenny & Noel Burrows at Bittern Primary School
Jenny and Noel have been volunteering in our kitchen since its beginning in May 2007. They own Bittern Cottage Restaurant, just down the road from our school, and are members of the Slow Food Group offering provincial cuisine. We invited them to our first community meeting and they have supported us ever since. During the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival Jenny and Noel worked with four children from our school in their restaurant kitchen to create an antipasto entrée for a Saturday lunch from produce the children had grown themselves. The children learnt so much on their visit and returned on the Saturday to discuss with the diners what they had grown and cooked for them. Jenny and Noel are truly star volunteers, quietly working with their small group of children each week, listening to the children's comments and sharing their many and varied skills. We are very lucky to have them as regular volunteers in our Program.
From Megan Leversha, Kitchen Specialist
..........Mary and Peter at Burwood Heights Primary
Mary has volunteered two days a week since we started the Program, for both kitchen sessions most days. She made all the aprons, napkins and tablecloths, has helped with all the additional chores and runs any fundraisers such as sausage sizzles. She even supplies and cuts fabric tops for our jams and preserves. Nothing is too much trouble for Mary, who offers her services whenever there is a need. She is so unassuming and never wants a fuss or any accolades. We simply could not function without her.
Peter lives nowhere near our school, but came to us via a parent volunteer. He has a wealth of experience in organic gardening and cultivation, is very much into recycling and sustainability and has great ideas and visions for the garden. He is truly a quiet achiever and accomplishes wonders in his three hours a week with us. The students love the little projects that he involves them in or those that just evolve spontaneously. He is a fount of knowledge but never interferes or wants praise or official recognition. He even comes during all the school breaks. I believe our garden has become a more interesting and vibrant space where students yearn to come because of Peter. He is helping to create a little haven in Burwood Heights. He is our ‘Man called Peter'.
From Ann Masters, Program Coordinator
..........Nat Vercoe at Wendouree Primary School
We are blessed to have a young mum who is an amazing asset to our school and especially our Kitchen Garden Program. Nat Vercoe volunteers in both the kitchen and garden and brings an array of skills and talent to both. She has worked in several Ballarat cafés and restaurants and currently works part-time with one of our best caterers. She often brings produce from her mother's garden, jars or plastic containers to freeze excess produce and always a cheerful smile.
Recently she brought in an old, handwritten book of her grandfather's that contained a diary of information about gardening, mushrooming and other various relevant topics dating back to 1938.
She says, ‘I won't commit to anything else on Thursdays as I love the kitchen and garden. I love working with the children and I am learning new things as well!'
From Mary Dinning, Program Coordinator
..........Rhonda de Haan at Teesdale Primary School
Rhonda has been supportive of Teesdale Primary School and the Kitchen Garden Program since the very beginning. She is now a permanent volunteer and gives up a full day of her time to help in the kitchen. Rhonda is not new to volunteering, she has been doing a wonderful job volunteering for many years and last year was awarded an Outstanding Achievement Award for her contribution to education in Victoria. Rhonda is a very busy person, with six children of her own and two jobs, one of which is now at Teesdale Primary as an integration aide. We are very lucky because Rhonda lives close by and we can borrow things from her home kitchen too, which is very kind and generous. She even helped to sew two sets of the students' kitchen aprons. We at Teesdale Primary are very fortunate to have someone as dedicated, kind, generous and helpful as Rhonda is on our Kitchen Garden team.
Sarah, Kitchen Specialist
..........Don Brown at Bittern Primary School
We have lots of great volunteers, but one especially who the children love to have around. His name is Don Brown and he is the grandpa of one of our children. Don is always early, willing to do any job and has lots of knowledge and great ideas. The kids agree Don is great. He is the kind of volunteer that you can ask to do anything and know it will get done without a worry, and when he finishes he just looks around and does weeding or anything else he can find!
Brenda Lanigan, Garden Specialist
..........Optus Volunteers at Altona Green Primary
Five volunteers from Optus came out to our school in May to work with us on our new garden extension and five more came out in mid-June. We will organise more of the same throughout the year. They were fantastic.
Ilona Toroczkoi, Program Coordinator
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