Community corrects situation at Wellington school when criminal working group fails to arrive
Alice Murfitt, 9, enjoys the safety of the new bark at Berhampore School's playground.
When the crims let a Wellington school down, Department of Corrections top brass got out their shovels to help. But they arrived too late.
A massive pile of bark chips was delivered to Berhampore School in south Wellington on Friday afternoon and school parent Blair Rutherford had organised a Corrections community work group to shift it to the playground on Saturday.
But Saturday came and went and no workers arrived, so Rutherford headed down on Sunday morning with a wheelbarrow, a shovel and a post on Wellington community Facebook page Vic Deals: 'Berhampore School needs you'.
Blair Rutherford helps shift a load of bark chips at Berhampore School.
By 9am the pile of chips was swarming with volunteers - kids with their plastic shovels, as well as mums and dads with the metal versions and wheelbarrows.
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When the Department of Corrections got word of the situation the apology came quick, as did more help.
Jack Murfitt, 10, gets stuck in at Berhampore School's playground.
Operations director Coralea Easther said bad weather last week meant some community work projects had been postponed. This meant Berhampore School missed out on its helpers.
"We recognise that this is an inconvenience for the school, and we're really sorry," Easther said.
"Community Corrections managers and our National Commissioner, Rachel Leota, are on their way to the school now to help move the bark."
Alas, the community help had been so great that the top brass turned up to a pile-that-was-no-longer-a-pile.
Rutherford said the "fantastic" turnout meant the bark was moved by 11am on Sunday.
He was told by Corrections that they "rang somebody" to cancel the work group but it seemed the message never made it through.
Community work groups tend to be lower-end offenders. According to Corrections they did 1.8 million hours of work across New Zealand in the past financial year.
- Stuff
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