11th December 2023
Dagenham St Peter & St Paul Parish Church grounds have been given a makeover thanks to a group of students.
BDC’s Public and Protective Services students volunteered to help the church with its conservation project, to clear and maintain the site to make sure families can continue to pay their respects to their lost ones.
This is the seventh year that students have volunteered on the project. The project was originally set up to provide the local community safe access to the church grounds and its wildlife areas. Since then, the students have been involved each year to give the site an overhaul to keep the grounds in tip top shape.
Over a two-week period, the 36 students spent their time clearing and preparing the churchyard, including the maintenance of 24 Commonwealth memorial war graves. The site looked fantastic once the students had finished. The volunteering was also an opportunity for the students to put into practice a lot of the skills and values they have been working on in their college lessons, such as teamwork, leadership and protecting and preserving the community.
BDC student, Artion Josan said: “I have learnt lots of new skills whilst helping the local community and will take these forward with me for my future career. It is especially satisfying when people come up to you and thank you for allowing them to see the graves where their loved ones can be remembered.”
Ryan Karrer, Protective Services Lecturer at BDC added: “We are so proud of our students. They have worked incredibly hard to make sure the church grounds continue to be as accessible to visitors as possible and it looks great. The students really enjoyed the opportunity to help and I’m sure we’ll be back again next year.”
