ONE of the impacts of the long-running drought is a small community’s struggle to raise adequate funds to maintain their facilities and that’s the situation Bundarra Preschool committee found themselves in last year when they couldn’t quite finish some necessary upgrade work.
Preschool Director Sherrie Grant and her hard-working committee were determined to see the work completed so they turned to Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall for some assistance.
Mr Marshall immediately approached former Minister for Early Childhood Learning Sarah Mitchell to consider making funding available for the work and was delighted to receive news that a one-off grant for $5,000 was on its way to Bundarra.
“This was very welcome news for the community – they work incredibly hard to ensure they maintain their facility and they were very disappointed they couldn’t quite stretch their funds to complete the upgrade,” Mr Marshall said.
“The preschool recently invested in some much needed bathroom upgrades inside the ageing building. In order to complete the work, the rear fence enclosing the outside play area and some of the playground was damaged and needed replacing.
“The infrastructure was pretty old and couldn’t be salvaged during the work. And with the ongoing drought, there is a limit to how often you can go back to your community to raise those necessary funds.
“So this one-off grant has given an enormous boost to the preschool community. The money will allow them to build a new fence around the back play area, do some landscaping to reduce dust and trip hazards and renew parts of the fall area.”
Mrs Grant said the funding boost came as a wonderful surprise and the preschool was delighted the work in the playground could be finally finished.
“It’s a great relief to have this support from the state government and our committee is thrilled they don’t have to sell any more raffle tickets to get the job finished,” Mrs Grant said.