VANDALS have destroyed a childcare centre’s garden, but not Cockburn’s community spirit.
In January Goodstart Early Learning Cockburn Central were celebrating the completion of their new edible garden, planting a range of delicious produce including tomatoes, snow peas, eggplants, capsicum, strawberries, silverbeet, beetroot and carrots.
But over the Easter long weekend vandals trashed the garden, stealing the vegetable and herb plants as well as ornaments including a wooden bridge and a birdbath.
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Centre director Wendy Cook said they were devastated at the vandalism.
“I think the overwhelming feeling was one of sadness due to the loss of something that meant so much to so many people,” she said.
She said since the incident they had been overwhelmed by the community response and generosity.
“One of our amazing mums jumped straight onto the local chat sites on Facebook to share the news and word of mouth did the rest,” she said.
“We have received plant donations from a member of the public, Prem, who tried ever so hard to stay anonymous but we were never going to let her act of kindness go unnoticed and we dropped of a lovely card from the children to say thank you.
“We were gifted a second hand birdbath, loads of compost and potting mix, one of the children bought in a chicken ornament to keep watch and once our local Bunnings heard about the theft they were kind enough to offer us some vouchers to assist with replacing some of the herbs and vegetables.
“We have been overwhelmed not only by the donations and kind words of support but also the feeling of really belonging to the Cockburn community and that we are place where people come together.
“We have always prided ourselves on the charitable work we try to bring to the families such as The Nappy Collective and Share the Dignity campaigns but to know that so many people are so willing to help us out and are simply so generous is truly inspiring and something we as educators hope we can teach the children in our care for many years to come.”