Residents’ donation to reserve really rocks

RESIDENTS came together quickly to help prepare Mount Egerton Recreation Reserve for a celebration.

Over a few weeks, and with a couple of social media call outs, community members donated crushed rock – and their time to compact the material into place – ahead of the town’s winter festival on Saturday 18 July.

“The drainage down there we had to fix before, but there was one section that was a giant puddle,” said reserve chair Kathryn Long.

“It makes it extremely muddy and slippery down there.

“We were concerned by the cars, and the kids and everybody slipping.”

The reserve committee has been raising money for playground equipment.

Long said they did not want to use funds they had been “desperately saving” for something else.

“So we thought we would ask the community if they could help us out with even discounted rates,” she said.

After a social media post on Tuesday 7 July, Helen Tatchell, Brenton Hooke and Crossroads Trading donated the 10 cubic metres needed to fill the sunken space ahead of the festival.

The rocks, however, still had to be set into place.

“I put another social media post out asking if anybody had machines,” Long said.

“Obviously we’re in a rural area, so lots of people have machines.”

Glenn Robbie completed the excavation and Shaun Summers finished the compacting.

Long said the town’s generosity had amazed her and was greatly appreciated.

“This is the most incredible community,” she said.

“The minute you ask for any help for anything, people just throw their time and resources at us.

“I think they see how much time has gone into rejuvenating the recreation reserve from it being quite dilapidated.

“The committee has worked tirelessly to get it to where it’s at.”

The committee is planning more fundraising events for the reserve, including the Halloween Party in October.