A group of Sutton schoolkids have raised nearly £600 for a place that it like a home away from home.
On Sunday, students from Robin Hood Juniors carried out a sponsored walk around Nonsuch Park to raise money for YourSpace.
Julia Buckell, whose son William Moorhouse was one of the children who took part, painted a picture of what the community project has meant to students.
"It’s Friday quarter past three and six excited Year 4 students are whispering and plotting as their teacher Mr Taylor dismisses them from Robin Hood Juniors," she said.
"It’s cold, dark and the middle of winter so we should be going home but they have other plans for their Friday afternoon.
"It’s a well-worn cliché which might even be true but ‘when we were kids’ it was safe to play outside on the street or in the park without even the slightest hint of helicopter parenting or a tracking app.
"Wouldn’t it be great if our kids could have that kind of experience of outdoor independence and burn off their surplus energy?"
And that's when YourSpace comes into play.
Julia says the space in Cheam wouldn't look out of place close to the sea-side.
"There’s a sense of Brighton here something a little boho, hip, eco, a touch of the hippie even but we’re nowhere near the Sussex coast we’re five minutes from home at YourSpace, a community nursery tucked away at the back of Seears Park in Cheam.
"This inspirational project once a derelict council plot run by Kevin Plicio and his crew of volunteers has become the back drop to our lives.
"Over the last two years, we’ve watched the seasons change here. Our kids have hidden in dens, held newts, watched the frogspawn, hung out with the Beeman, eaten their own bodyweight in Victoria sponge cake and made shared childhood memories to last a lifetime."
That love of a Friday afternoon where kids can play and live their lives to the fullest was exactly the reason the group decided to take on the walk.
They set themselves a goal to raise £300, but quickly found out many around them felt just the way they did about the community space. In total £546 was raised, nearly twice as much as they had hoped for.
"The attraction of YourSpace is a bit undefinable," Julia continued.
"It might be that sense of deep escape and otherworldliness. It could be Kevin’s effortless ease with people and welcoming nature or the nature itself which our kids immerse themselves in? Who knows?
"It’s about much more than the slime workshops, the soft play sessions and the craft days.
"Some places you go to foster an effortless human connection with the people around you and YourSpace has that magic.
"So we decided we should put something back to show our gratitude and set ourselves the task of marching our kids round Nonsuch Park on a Sunday morning to raise some pennies for this community haven of communal sanity.
"We love this place, we can breathe here, it’s like our back garden."
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