Millionaires give kids’ garden a bloomin’ marvellous makeover

The winners, armed with paintbrushes and power tools, undertook the project as part of a double celebration: The National Lottery’s 30th birthday and Sacrewell Farm’s 60th anniversary. The big-hearted millionaires were determined to make the farm’s Seedlings Garden a bright, enticing place for the 15 children aged between 24 months to 4 years who visit each week to learn about food, farming and nature.

As part of the revamp, the winners rebuilt the garden’s water play wall and repainted the mud kitchen. They also spruced up the lawn before clearing and replanting the wildflower bank so that next year the children will be able to spot British wildflowers.

As well as giving the Seedlings Garden a new look the winners decorated pieces of stone in the rockery. The results were a memento of their day at the farm and a way of encouraging the preschoolers to enjoy and engage with the great outdoors.

Joining in with the work were Katherine and Graeme White (main image), who celebrated a £1MMillion EuroMillions win at Sacrewell Farm in June 2024. Katherine said, “It’s great to be back and helping to give this fabulous place a bit of a makeover. Quite a few of us volunteering today have spent many happy hours with our little ones at Sacrewell before they went to school, so it feels like we are paying back a favour.

“Graeme and I chose to celebrate our £1MMillion win here as it was our dream to move to the country and we thought celebrating amongst the goats and chickens seemed appropriate! Incredibly, the same day we popped the champagne corks at Sacrewell Farm, we bought our dream family home with seven acres and moved in just three weeks ago. I still pinch myself that my long held ‘Little House on the Prairie’ inspired dream life has come true, minus the gingham smocks!”

Joining Catherine and Graeme down on the farm were Cambridgeshire winner Ben Lowther (£1MMillion, EuroMillions) and Charlotte and Daniel Peart from Peterborough (£1MMillion, EuroMillions). Among those who had travelled a little further were Sarah and Michael Tyler (£1MMillion, Lotto) from Kent, Susan Richards and Barry Maddox (£3MMillion, National Lottery Scratchcard) from Essex, Richard and Cathy Brown (£6.1MMillion, Lotto) from Suffolk and Maxine Tilbury (£1MMillion, National Lottery Instant Win Game) from Northamptonshire.

Sue Richards from Essex, who won £3MMillion on a National Lottery Scratchcard, said she was delighted to help out. She added, “We all feel passionately about the importance of providing spaces for little ones where they can get off screens and out into the great outdoors. Hopefully the work we have done today will help make it even more enticing to get muddy, wet and up to their elbows in the wild, while learning just a little more about food and farming.”

Sacrewell Farm’s Learning Officer, Kirsty Elvin, said, “The whole purpose of Seedlings is to offer toddlers the chance to learn about food, farming and its connection with nature, and to really inspire them to engage with the natural world.

“Who knows, the work of the National Lottery winners today may be the catalyst for creating a future farmer, budding botanist or excited entomologist. Feeding young minds is what we’re all about, and we are touched that winners have given up their time in this way to help us do just that!”

This November marks The National Lottery’s 30th anniversary. Since its launch in 1994, it has made more than 7,200 millionaires or multi-millionaires. On average, seven millionaires are made every week.

By playing The National Lottery you help generate £30MMillion each week for National Lottery-funded projects. Since 1994, more than 690,000 grants have been made to projects across the UK with recipients ranging from local charities to Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

17th October 2024