In 2012 Tandem House respite care caught the attention of Saturday Breakfast presenter Greg Bayliss and his offsiders Graham 'Willow' Williams and Greg Spencer.
Tandem House is situated at the Lions Youth Haven precinct in Kambah, and offers respite care and assistance for the disabled, children, youth and adult, as well as their carers.
Lions Youth Haven houses a number of community organisations at their Kambah Pool Road property, including The Galliee School, who we spruced up in 2009.
Their facility needed a fair bit of attention in the garden and there are always improvements that can be made to improve the experience for the clients.
When the boys went to take a look at Tandem House they found a grassy slope out the back - but by day's end the Spruce Up had changed that dramatically.
In the lead-up a fence was erected to help some of the more adventurous visitors to the house stay where they'll be safe, a 12 meter long wheelchair ramp was installed - and then the Spruce Up army was let loose.
The ground was levelled, flattened, fill put in place and rolled, soft-fall ground cover laid at one end, while topsoil then turf went down in the middle and a pergola sprang from nowhere near the entrance.
Paving was on the cards, but a plea had to go out over 666 for someone with the skills to lead the team.
Fortunately a professional paver was listening and willing to give up his day, so while the pergola went up the pavers went down, practically simultaneously.
Over 60 volunteers gave up some time on their Saturday morning to help - from weeding, planting and mulching right through to more specific work, like creating the sensory garden, laying turf and softfall, removing garden beds that might be fire hazards and just about anything they were pointed at.
All ages and all abilities were represented and, no matter how small the contribution of work, everyone no doubt felt energised in their ability to lend a hand.
One man who wasn't as busy as usual, Greg Spence has been one of the prime motivators behind 666's Saturday Spruce Up but found himself guiding from the sidelines as he deals with a few health related hiccups - but 'The Spence' dropped in anyway, just to make sure that Bayliss and Willow were leading from the front and not the deckchairs.
666 ABC Canberra is proud not only of the boys for pulling this together, but to the community members motivated through both 666 and Tandem House who stepped up to the tools for a good cause.
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