Some of the SHACworks team members
It has been fantastic to have students from Ampleforth College getting stuck into projects with the Besom in recent years – and we were delighted to welcome another of their SHACworks teams to York at the end of June. The team of 14 students rolled up their sleeves to decorate and garden for a mum and her daughter. Here’s their teacher Alison Rogerson’s report to the team’s parents of how they got on…
Entering the home for the first time on Tuesday morning and seeing what they had been asked to achieve was, I suspect, daunting for most, but they utterly transformed the spaces they were asked to tackle.
The daughter’s bedroom was entirely redecorated, the kitchen was also totally decorated and the gardens front and back which were transformed, even to the extent that two patio areas were uncovered and brought back in to use.
Students were so moved by their interaction with the mum in particular that they asked if they could add a few small, but meaningful finishing touches. On Thursday morning, we shopped for wildflower seeds for a bed which had been dug out but which had poppies in it that were carefully dug around, AA batteries in huge quantities for the abundance of fairy lights woven around the daughter’s bed none of which were working, and a sunflower to adorn the garden table which had been found and placed on one of the ‘new’ patios.
The mum was especially touched when presented with solar fairy lights, 200 of them, to wind around the newly trimmed trees in her front garden which had been planted by her father who died earlier in the year. These were strung around the trees before we left and we all hoped as dusk fell that they were twinkling brightly!
The mum repeatedly asked that I tell you explicitly how proud she hopes you are, she was utterly blown away by the efforts of your child and the way in which all presented themselves.
You can read about how some of the previous Ampleforth teams have given time with the Besom by clicking on the links below