Photo: Sharyn Smart
Volunteering to plant native shrubs and grasses on the Coastal Walkway, turned out to be harder work than expected for a group of Taranaki Brownies and Girl Guides.
About 100 girls, leaders and family members took part in a Provincial Outdoor Fun Day this month which incorporated the Great Living Legends Muck In.
The job of planting about 3000 native shrubs and grasses with other members of the public proved quite tough.
“I brought my own shovel and ending up bending it,” Brownie Keira Hills-Wilson, 8, said.
Girl Guide Laura Smith, 12, also found the going a bit tough.
“It was fun and hard work digging,” she said.
Her twin sister Michaela, however, loved the unusual freedom the event offered her.
“It was fun stabbing the spade into the grass (to start digging) as I’m not normally allowed to wreck the grass,” she said.
Rotokare Brownie unit leader Vanessa Butcher said community service was part of guiding and looking after the environment was important to the organisation.
“It’s good having the girls taking part in community projects like this,” she said.
“This counts towards their service badge.”
As well as the planting, the girls took part in a “jump rope challenge”, ate a picnic lunch, finishing the day with a tramp along the walkway.
The Living Legends project has planted about 10,000 native trees in Taranaki.
This article was published in the North Taranaki Midweek on Wednesday August 28, 2013