Merrist Wood College and University Centre is delighted to once again support the team from for the second year of their annual Christmas Tree Collection and Recycling Service. This is a great fundraising activity for such a valuable local charity and a collaboration we are proud to be a part of.听
Following on from last year鈥檚 fantastic launch success, a total of 650 Christmas trees were collected from homes across the GU and TW postcodes – 450 of which were delivered to Merrist Wood College raising a whopping over 拢16,000 for the charity and beating last year鈥檚 total by nearly 拢10,000!
Over the past couple of weeks, an enthusiastic group of students received van loads of trees from local homes who had made a donation to the charity, all delivered by volunteer drivers from partner organisations, Sky, Amazon and Kier.
A keen team of second year full time students and wasted no time in gaining loads of valuable practical experience by learning how to operate and feed each tree through the college鈥檚 large chipper.
The activity also provided our apprentices with the opportunity to gain an extra qualification and we are proud to report that a total of 11 first year Arboriculture apprentices completed the training and integrated assessment for City & Guilds NPTC Level 2 Award in Safe Use of Manually Fed Wood-chipper!
Our friends from were also on hand with their machinery to give our Arboriculture and some valuable chainsaw handling experience as well as giving the students some vital industry knowledge and support throughout the event.
Aligning perfectly with our core sustainability ethos, the resulting huge pile of chippings will now sit for a few months, giving it time to break down, before heading up to the college鈥檚 pinetum where it will be spread around the base of pine and conifer trees to act as a protective layer.
Richard Cant, Faculty Manager of , and at Merrist Wood College and University Centre said: 鈥淭his entire collaborative project fostered some valuable key learning for our students and apprentices as well as imparting a genuine sense of purpose and community connection.
鈥淲e are proud to partner with this much-loved local charity who provide such an important service to the community, and we very much look forward to being involved again for the Christmas 2024 appeal.鈥�
Learn more about apprenticeships at Merrist Wood College and University Centre here
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