Students putting the hard work in at Dovestones

Reporter: Liam Brown
Date published: 22 November 2018


After contacting the ‘Life for a Life’ charity, who specialise in planting trees and creating benches at memorial parks, students from Oldham College certainly made their mark at the memorial forest at Dovestones Reservoir.

Students needed 35 hours as a requirement of the ‘Uniformed Public Services' course, so plenty of hard work was carried out over a three-day period as the students grafted tirelessly with a shift starting at 10am and finishing at 4pm.

Students had the task of restoring a path that went through the memorial forest at Dovestones.

This is the area where loved ones pay for a tree to be planted and have a plaque installed to remember family members.

The public services course task was split by the levels students are at, as a total of 76 participated.

On the first day, level 2 students carried out the initial process of prepping the area of the path, digging up roots and removing the top soil and rocks.

Day two saw students from level 3, year 2, place the edging boards for the gravel and sand to be added.

Day three was used to lay the sand and gravel to finish the path.

Dave Jones, Public Services Tutor and programme leader, was very pleased with the student’s efforts as they worked so hard.

The students had no machinery to help them with the work. They used shovels and wheelbarrows.

The students gave 100% and wanted to give something back to the community.

Life for a Life was amazed by the work rate the students had shown, and the sense of achievement was outstanding.


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