Tasks and materials you can help with

We now have just 3 weeks left to finish off the rest of the work on the kinder building and garden if we are to get everything ready by the start of term 2.

We can still get everything ready in time to open, but only with a mammoth effort from the entire kinder community and help from the broader community.

We are getting help from the broader community already - Orica has donated all the paints for the building, Lewis's timber yard on Jasper Rd, Bentleigh is donating the timber for shelves and cupboards, as well as sawdust & mulch, Delfin provided us with boulders, Xavier college has given us rocks for garden beds. And people from outside the kinder community have also been helping to get the building ready. We have had school teachers and the school principal in painting, grandparents are coming in to help, I have asked for volunteers from the local Rotary group, and past members of the kinder community whose children have moved on to school are also putting in a huge amount of time.

But we can only do this if every member of the kinder community gets involved as well and really stretches themselves over the next 3 weeks. I know it's difficult - we all have small children, babies, work commitments, family responsibilities - and very little spare time. But 3 weeks of hard yakka isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things, and at the end of it all, you'll have secured the future of the kindergarten for your children.

There will be working bees on both Saturday and Sunday every weekend for the next 3 weeks (17-18 March, 24-25 March and 31 Mar-1 April), starting around 9am. There are also smaller groups of parents helping most days during the week, and some coming in in the evenings. Let me know when you can help.

Some ideas for helping:

- Get together with other kinder parents and share childcare so you can help out
- Ask grandparents to babysit - many kinder parents are doing this so they can help
- Or ask grandparents or other friends/family to help at working bees - my mum has proved very handy with a paint brush!
- Come when it's easiest for you to help - during weekdays, in the evening or at weekends - just let me know when you can come and I'll let you know what needs to be done
- Help by collecting trailer loads of garden materials for us - we still need trailers to collect rocks, sleepers, sawdust and mulch
- Offer to help with admin tasks - some things can be done from home, sitting at a phone
- Offer to bring lunch or morning tea for volunteers at working bees
- Help source the materials that we still need - do you know a place we might be able to get these materials free or cheap?
- On Saturday 24 March from 10am - 4pm it's the East Bentleigh Primary School autumn fair. Bring the kids along to enjoy the fair with their kinder and school friends while one parent helps out for a few hours at the working bee!

Materials we still need

Sand pit sand (13 cubic metres)
Gravel (4 cubic meters)
Mulch (20 cubic metres)
Compost (20 cubic meters compost)
Redgum or other hardwood sleepers for garden beds
Ready mix concrete
Soil – lots!
Plants
Rocks & bluestones to build garden beds
A garden shed (3m x 3m or similar)
A fax machine
Specialist skills needed

We are desperately looking for a renderer who can render the pillars around the front fence boundary for us - do you know someone who can help?

If you can help with any of these things, please contact me on:

9521 8278/ 0425 739 529/ rachel@careythomas.com.au

Thanks,

Rachel