2:40pm Thursday 18th March 2010
By Alicia Kelly
A new “touchy feely” garden will be created at Acorns children’s hospice thanks to a loyal group of volunteers.
As the Bath Road hospice celebrates its fifth birthday, a team of fund-raisers has agreed to finance the project and plan to get their hands dirty by planting it themselves it.
Specsavers’ senior receptionist Val Paine is just one of the many fund-raisers who help Acorns raise the £4,500 a day it needs to offer one-to-one care to life-limited children in Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire.
She said: “We’ve been raising money for Acorns since 2005. Specsavers has raised more than £12,000 so far but it’s not just about money.
“It’s also about giving up our time and we thought that this was a great way of showing our community spirit.” Mrs Paine and senior contact lens assistant Becky Rashbrook both work at the Broad Street shop and live near the hospice.
To raise money, they have abseiled, walked miles and dressed up as pirates.
However, this year, they decided to be even more hands-on by giving up their time to create and maintain a sensory garden for Acorns.
Mrs Paine has roped in her husband Gary, while Miss Rashbrook has persuaded her brother John Lincoln, who is a gardener, to come up with the ideas.
Miss Rashbrook said: “We want touchy feely plants that the children can enjoy.
“We’ll have plants that are smelly and do it in a way that is accessible so the children can move around the garden.”
The team believes the land, which needs redeveloping, will take about three or four days to clear.
Mr Lincoln said: “It will hopefully be ready this summer but it’s an ongoing project so we’ll be back in the autumn to maintain it.”
Acorns’ volunteers manager Katreena Barnes said: “The generosity of all our volunteers is wonderful.
“To give a pound to charity, everybody does that, but to give up your time is so much more difficult considering the climate we are in at the moment.
“Specsavers has done all that fund-raising and the staff there still want to give up their time. I think it’s wonderful.”
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