Students’ bespoke birdboxes help paint picture for Riverfest

Art students from Medina College have applied their creativity to paint eleven chic bird boxes for the local community as part of Riverfest, being held on Saturday 17 May in Newport.

The Southern Co-operative is supporting Riverfest, which celebrates the heritage, community, businesses and wildlife associated with the River Medina. A team from the Island’s Co-operative Funeralcare branches, part of The Southern Co-operative, will have a community stand at Riverfest. Jo Gibson, Funeral Co-ordinator at their Ryde branch explained: “The Southern Co-operative is committed to being a responsible and sustainable business and actively involved in the local community, so supporting Riverfest makes a lot of sense. We asked Medina College to have some fun with us decorating bird boxes and these will be on our stand at Riverfest for visitors to judge their favourite.”

Visitors to the stand will also be invited to try their luck on the chocolate tombola and hamper raffle; children can have their hair braided and face painted too. There’ll also be plenty of information about The Co-operative Funeralcare’s community activities and fundraising for local good causes on the Island.

Jo added: “Following Riverfest, some of these beautiful bird boxes – each one an original piece of art – will be put up in local cemeteries and we’re donating one to the garden at Medina College. We’ll also be selling some on The Co-operative Funeralcare’s stand at Riverfest to raise money for our charity.” The bird boxes were made by volunteers at the Riverside Centre’s wood workshop. Riverfest, a free community event organised by The Footprint Trust, is in Newport on Saturday 17 May from 11am-3pm. http://www.footprint-trust.co.uk/riverfest.html