For the second year in a row, the team of Ricoh showed up en masse for the Big Green Day Out! Great to have such an enthusiastic team of people helping us to plant, weed and learn about the environment. The weeding was around the trees which were planted by Ricoh staff and their families last year, and we can honestly say some of the trees grew faster than some of the children who planted them… and we all know how fast those 4-year-olds shoot up!

After all the hard work (almost double the number of plants and trees were planted this year compared to last year – a whopping 850 of them), the catering was well deserved and definitely enjoyed by all. Every time it amazes us volunteers how those professional caterers deal with our “interesting” location and manage to serve not only delicious coffees and treats, but also a hot lunch with vegetarian options galore to suit every taste and requirement. I’m certain that if we would provide this kind of catering at our working bees, we’d have a parking issue with the number of volunteers wanting to join us!!!

On top of all this, Ricoh generously supports our Million Metres fundraiser towards more stream side restoration: https://millionmetres.org.nz/open-project/matuku-link-restoring-a-rare-bird-haven. If you work in a team or at a business who wants to do a similar “give back” or “community day” at Matuku Link, please contact me. We still have enough plants ready to be planted!

Thank you to all the Ricoh staff, volunteers and family members, managers and supporters for their mahi, thank you to our own volunteers to prepare the site, grow the plants, help set up, guide the groups and just be there as support for these big team days.

All the best and hope to see you back next year,

Annalily & the trustees of Matuku Link – matukulink@gmail.com 

 

All images by our voluntary professional photographer Stefan Marks – thank you!