Sam Perrett and David Klemmer got their hands dirty with students at Chullora Public School this week, joining with Bunnings Greenacre to help build a school vegetable patch.
Dave enjoyed the opportunity to go back to school.
“I loved visiting the kids and talking about living healthy and keeping active. The veggie garden is an awesome addition to the school to show the students how easy it is to grow healthy fresh food and show what they should be eating”
In between planting coriander, basil and carrot seedlings Sam and Dave, who has studied landscaping, used the occasion to speak about the importance of diet, exercise and sleep for a healthy lifestyle.
Year 6 Student Yassine Noful learned some valuable lessons.
“I am not that good at sleeping so hearing the players speak about how important sleep really stuck with me,” Noful said.
Noful was buzzing after meeting his favourite players and is hopeful they’ll return to sample some of the vegie patch produce.
“I like Sam because he looks good while he is playing. Dave is tough. In the TV he looks a bit bigger but seeing him in real life he was still huge!
“I was so excited when I met them. It’s great to have the garden, we are growing our own vegetables and lettuces so hopefully when they have grown the Bulldogs will come back again to taste what we have made.”
Today’s visit was 18 months in the making, with the children writing up petitions, conducting surveys, writing proposals and collating budgets as part of the school’s ‘Language to Promote Dialogue’ programme.
Teacher Salmah Yasan who coordinates the programme said the healthy lifestyle messages delivered by Perrett and Klemmer to the Bulldogs loving school will make a big impact.
“Sam and Dave were excellent. They had a lot of positive ideas and were brilliant role models for the kids,” Yasan said.
“Having a veggie garden out in the playground promotes ownership, and the dialogue, it allows the kids to access it, look at it, and talk about it. They will be able to look after it and monitor the growth and the kids have designed a roster to care for it.”
