If you were to walk through Dartford on Wednesday you would see a sea of maroon T-shirts! For the second year running we have had our Community Day and again it was a huge success. This year there were 540 students and 60 staff who went out for the day on Wednesday 20th July to help our community.
All 45 placements were varied and spread all across Dartford. For example some students went to Age UK Meadowside Day Centre, others painted the sea cadets hut, some even did free Zumba in the Orchards centre and lots and lots and lots more.
One exciting addition this year was working with the Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS). The charity trained our Year 12 students in drowning awareness and they then went into some of our feeder primaries to teach the Year 6 students. For the charity this was a UK first and now it has been trialled it is planned this will happen across the UK.
Students and staff all wore branded T-shirts which were very generously sponsored by Bluewater, BartonWillmore, Campanile Hotel, Rival Colour and Ergro.
The equipment we used like the gardening tools, paint and other equipment were sponsored by the Dartford KCC councillors after we applied and were accepted for a members grant.
We are also very grateful to the Mayor and Mayoress who went to many of the placements.
We thank the many businesses that donated paint, rollers and other decorating equipment. In total around £4,000 worth of goods were donated which was amazing. The Co-op also gave us 600 bottles of water and fruit for the day.
The day was a huge success but, more importantly, it meant that we could make a real, tangible difference to many charities and groups that struggle for funding and manpower. This will now be an annual event so keep an eye out for our next Community Day in 2017!
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