Nursery children host carol service to honour Friends of Hebburn Cemetery after they formed a bond through helping

Children from Nurserytime in Hebburn have spent the past year working with Friends of Hebburn Cemetery to help make the area a better place.

The Friends group was given the prestigious Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service – the highest of its kind in the land – in June as part of Her Majesty’s birthday honours.

And to honour their efforts in helping, the Friends group issued the Nurserytime children with their own awards earlier this year.

Now it was the little ones’ turn to honour the volunteers with some Christmas entertainment and festive treats.

Elena Wood, manager at Nurserytime Hebburn, said: “The children have worked with the cemetery this past year and wanted to do something special for them, so hosted a carol service.

"There was a really good turn out and the children were joined by local school teacher ‘Tom the music man’ to perform the songs they have been practicing.

"Tom also wrote a song all about the work the children do at the cemetery. We then had mince pies and hot chocolate and the children were very proud of themselves.”

The nursery children’s work alongside Friends of Hebburn Cemetery included a litter-pick and a special gardening project.

Elena said the work was also a chance for the children to learn about the benefits of recycling and keeping the planet clean, the nursery children were keen to get involved and help in anyway they could.

As well as this, the group also made their own recycling boxes to sort plastic and paper within the nursery.

Elena added: "The children have been doing a range of activities including planting, gardening to take care of the flowers and litter picking.

"The children take great pride in their cemetery trips and looking after their environment."

Friends of Hebburn Cemetery launched in 2017 to help stop vandalism at the cemetery and have since played a key role in supporting the community and looking after the area.

Since launching, the group has been able to install CCTV at the cemetery, maintain graves, go on and regular litter picks and recently paid tribute to the Sir Tom Moore and the victims of the coronavirus pandemic with a memorial.

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