We are Kurtis, Harvey and Jack. We are volunteers who live in Wales and we are passionate about helping the planet. We trialled some volunteering at Cosmeston so we could write about it for the Volunteering Hub!
Cosmeston is a country park in the Vale. Here, you can volunteer helping the rangers to look after the park. To make our volunteering more fun, we went for a walk together in the morning and had lunch in the café and then we started our volunteering session in the afternoon.
We met Sharon, who is the Head Ranger, at the beginning of the session. Sharon told us what we needed to do and why it was important. She gave a demonstration too! This was helpful for us. After watching and listening to Sharon, we knew that we needed to rake the brambles and leaves and to use loppers and sheers to cut back more brambles.
Before we started our tasks in this area, it was very overgrown. It was important that the brambles and leaves were removed so other plants can have a chance to grow.
I am Jack and I think that volunteering to help the planet is important. Jack said ‘I enjoy volunteering at Cosmeston because I like to help the area thrive and to help the animals that live there’. The group found two frogs whilst clearing the leaves and brambles. We moved it to a nice, safe area.
I am Kurtis and I liked the volunteering at Cosmeston. Kurtis said ‘One Planet is a project to encourage people with learning disabilities to be able to take sustainable steps to save the planet’. Kurtis likes to help the planet and knows that the volunteering they did helps the planet.
I am Harvey and I like how the group is supported when they volunteer with Innovate. Harvey likes working with Mared. Mared is a Project Officer who works for Innovate. She is there to help the volunteers. Harvey said ‘the support we get helps us to have a better understanding of what we need to do’.
At the end of the session, we had completed the task. We all felt good about this. We met some new people today and tried something new. This is always good.
