by Holly Webb
Izzy nodded. Her dad had been asked to join a local environmental group a few months before. It was organised by somebody he’d done some garden landscaping for. They planted trees and bulbs around the area, and every so often organised a big Rescue Weekend, where they hired a skip and cleared up litter and junk. This neglected bit of river sounded just right for them.
“I’ll definitely mention it at our next meeting, though,” her dad agreed. “It’s just the sort of thing we’d want to do. Actually, I’m surprised no one’s mentioned it already. I suppose it’s a bit out of the way.”
“I should think people only come here when they want to dump rubbish,” Izzy agreed sadly. “I don’t think I want to eat the picnic here, Dad.”
“No, definitely not. We’ll go further on, round to the main bit of the river – it’s a lot nicer to look at there.”
They got back on their bikes and, ten minutes later, they were sitting on the grass, watching two swans gliding along with their beaks in the air, looking extremely grand.
“I bet they wouldn’t go down that bit of river,” Izzy said, between bites of ham sandwich.
“Certainly not. Not nearly clean enough for those posh swans.”
Izzy chewed thoughtfully as she watched the swans disappearing round the curve of the water. If it was only money that was stopping Dad’s Rescue group cleaning up the river, maybe there was something she and Poppy and Emily and Maya could do to help? Could they raise some money somehow? Mr Finlay had said they needed a new project. It would be nice to do something that was really close to home, too.
She bit into an apple, smiling to herself. A new project. Something they could really help with. It sounded excellent!
On Monday she hurried to find Poppy in the playground, and smiled to herself at the difference from Friday morning.
Emily and Maya were already there, as the school bus had been on time for once, and they waved to her.
“Was your dad really OK about your dress?” Poppy asked anxiously. “I told Emily and Maya what happened,” she added.
“That dog!” Emily shook her head. “He’s a menace.”
“He’s a very nice menace,” Izzy said, smiling.
“He’s still sulking about us giving him a bath,” Poppy sighed. “He’s hardly talking to me.”
Emily snickered, and Poppy elbowed her. “You know what I mean.”
“My dad didn’t mind that much, and we went to see my gran yesterday, she’s going to mend it for me. I showed my dad the river too – we went for a bike ride down there on Saturday. He was really upset at how messy it was.”
“It is pretty bad,” Poppy agreed.
“He says it used to be beautiful, and we found a board that said it was a nature reserve.”
Poppy looked disbelieving. “Really? I’ve never seen rare birds flying in and out of the old fridge, Izzy.”
“Well, I shouldn’t think it’s much use as one now – not with all that rubbish messing up the water and everything. But it used to be. And I bet it could be again, if it was cleaned up.” She looked at the others hopefully. “Dad belongs to a clean-up group, they take on projects just like that. But they’ve spent all their money on trees.”
“Are you thinking we could help? Like Mr Finlay said?” Maya asked excitedly.
“It would be a really cool project,” Izzy said. She was so glad Maya liked the idea – she was the one who’d first thought of the fashion show, and Izzy couldn’t help feeling that she had to approve this before it could happen. It was Maya who’d started them off working as a team.
But Emily was scowling. “It doesn’t sound cool at all! Picking up litter on a messy river bank? It sounds dead boring.”
“I know it’s not as exciting as organising a fashion show––” Izzy started to say, but Emily interrupted.
“Of course it isn’t!” Emily stared at her disgustedly.
Izzy sighed, and tried to tell herself it was just the way Emily was. Stroppy. Izzy had a feeling it was to do with having two very annoying, very loud younger brothers (and a baby sister who, although she didn’t get on Emily’s nerves as much, meant that Emily’s mum was always busy).
Emily had a habit of making snap decisions and then sticking to them like glue, even when really she knew she was wrong. Izzy liked her most of the time, but sometimes she could be a real pain. Izzy sighed, and tried not to get upset. “I’m not saying we ought to go and clean up the river – though I’d like to join in, I think it would be cool, actually. If you listen, I think we ought to help raise some money, so my dad’s Rescue group can do the tidying up.”
“What do they need the money for?” Maya asked. “Isn’t it just picking up some rubbish?”
“They’d have to hire a skip – and maybe some other equipment. You haven’t seen it, Maya, it isn’t just litter. There was half an old boat, and the bike that Billy got stuck in.”
“And the mattress in the water, that would be really hard to get out,” Poppy agreed. “They might need one of those little diggers, with a grab on. Something like that. I bet they cost a lot to hire.”
“Exactly.” Izzy sighed. “Maybe we couldn’t…”
“I bet we could!” Maya was looking interested. “I’m not sure how, yet… Who does that bit of river belong to?”
Izzy shook her head. “I don’t know. The sign said it was a nature reserve. The council? My dad could find out, or someone else from the Rescue group.”
“We ought to do that first.” Maya nodded. “Otherwise we might raise all the money and get down there with a skip, only for someone to come and tell us to get lost.”
“We?” Emily muttered. “Us?”
“It would be fun!” Poppy put an arm round her. “You wouldn’t want to raise money for something and then not go and help. It would be a real shame. And if we could clean it up, it would feel so good afterwards, Ems! We could go there and know that we’d helped make it nice again.”
“Oh, all right…” Emily growled. “I suppose. It just sounds boring. And muddy.”
Izzy giggled. “You should have seen us on Friday.”
Poppy nodded. “Yeah, waterproofs all round if we do go and help. But we need to work out how to raise some money first.”
Maya was frowning. “Do you think other people from school would want to come and join in? If your dad’s group worked out when they might do their clean-up session, we could put posters up, try and get more people to come and help.”
“I think they’d probably choose a weekend – that’s what they usually do for a big project. I reckon all that rubbish would take at least a weekend to clear.”
“How much money do you think we’d need to raise?” Poppy asked, and Izzy shrugged.
“I honestly don’t know. I’ll ask Dad what he thinks after school,” she promised.
But when she dashed out of school to find him that afternoon, with Poppy and the others chasing after her, her dad was on his mobile, frowning gloomily. He waved when he saw her coming, but then he went back to his conversation, and sighed. “No, absolutely. Well, it was just a thought. We can’t do everything. OK. Talk soon.” He ended the call, and looked down at Izzy. “Hey, sweetheart. Hi, Poppy.”
“This is Maya, and this is Emily, Dad, you remember?”
Her dad smiled and nodded. “Course.”
“Dad, I was telling them about the river. Do you think if we raised some money for the skip and stuff, the Rescue group would do a clean-up weekend there?”
Her dad looked at her in surprise. “Great minds think alike, Iz. I was just talking to Richard – the one who organises the group.”
Izzy beamed, but then she realised that her dad was looking disappointed, and his phone call hadn’t exactly sounded enthusiastic either. “Oh no! He didn’t think it was a good idea?” she asked sadly.
Her dad shook his head. “He thought it was a great idea! But the group have already got the next two Rescue weekends planned, and then they stop for the summer holidays. He says he’
d love the group to help but he just can’t ask people to commit to another weekend. They’re all volunteers, you see.”
Izzy nodded. “I suppose so.”
Emily let out an enormous sigh. “I knew it was going to end up being us doing it,” she moaned.
Izzy looked round at her. “What, you mean you think we should just do it ourselves?”
Emily shrugged. “Why not? But I’m warning you now, Izzy, I’m going to complain the whole weekend. And I’d better not get wet.”
Izzy’s dad laughed. “Well, I’m up for it too.”
“Really?” Izzy said happily. “Even without all the people from Rescue?”
Her dad nodded. “Why not? If we ask around, I’m sure we can find a few people for a one-off.”
“Oooh! We could get the local paper to put in something asking for people to help! I’ve still got the email address the journalist gave us.” Maya giggled. “I think he’s a bit scared of my mum, I bet they’ll put a bit in about it.”
“What are you girls plotting?” Poppy’s mum asked, seeing them all hovering round Izzy and her dad.
“We’re going to clean up the river!” Poppy told her excitedly.
Her mum frowned. “What, the bit where Billy went in the water? I’m not sure that’s a very good idea, Poppy.”
“Why not?” Poppy stared at her in surprise, and the other girls looked worried.
“Well, from what you said, Poppy, it’s dangerous! Billy nearly cut his paws – who knows what other stuff you girls might hurt yourselves on.”
Izzy’s dad nodded. “I hadn’t thought of that – I wasn’t going to let them go down there on their own, though. I’d definitely be with them, and the girls are thinking of getting lots of people to join in. Sort of a public appeal.”
Poppy’s mum sighed. “It would be nice to get it cleaned up, then Billy wouldn’t miss out on his favourite walk.”
“You could come and help too, Mum!” Poppy pointed out.
Her mum nodded reluctantly. “I can’t say it would be my favourite way to spend a weekend, but I can’t just dump you on Izzy’s dad and go home, can I?”
“Dad could come too,” Poppy suggested.
“Hmm. You might have to work on him. Emily, aren’t you and Maya supposed to be on the bus?”
“Eeek! See you tomorrow!” Emily yelped. “I’ll ask my dad if he’ll help too.”
Maya waved. “Don’t forget about the council, Izzy,” she called, as they raced off.
“What was that about the council?” Izzy’s dad asked, as they walked to his truck.
“Maya said we ought to find out who the river bank belongs to, and make sure we’re allowed to go and tidy it up.” Izzy frowned. “I think they ought to be grateful, but I suppose she’s right. You don’t know who it belongs to, do you?”
Her dad shook his head. “No, I’d assumed it was the council, though. But maybe not – they’d probably have sorted it out if it was theirs.”
“Who do we ask?” Izzy wondered.
“We’ll ring up the environment department, see what they say.”
Izzy was so anxious to get her plan going that she refused the offer of a snack – chocolate biscuits! – and hurried her dad to the phone. She’d even found him the number, but he had a mouthful of biscuit, and just made faces at her.
“Fine! I’ll do it.” She didn’t really like calling people she didn’t know, but her dad was just being too annoying.
Her dad watched in surprise as she made the phone call, scribbling notes on a bit of paper.
“What did they say?” he asked eagerly, as she put the phone down.
“It does belong to the council, and we have to write to them to get permission to tidy it up!” Izzy scowled. “She said it was because the council could get into trouble if someone was hurt. She gave me an email address for the person to ask though, so it might be a bit quicker than a letter. And they’ll lend us litter pickers, and high-vis vests to wear, and gloves. But they can’t provide a skip, we’ll have to hire one, or just take everything to the tip.”
“We could use my van for that, or some of it, anyway. We’ll probably need a skip as well.” Her dad was watching her, and smiling.
“What?” Izzy stared back, wondering if she had something on her face. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I can’t believe you just rang up the council!” He shook his head. “What happened to my shy little mouse daughter? And where did you come from?”
Izzy shrugged, but she’d gone pink. It was true. A few weeks ago, she’d never have dared. “I just really want it to happen,” she said. “And I need to make a list.”
“Not another one!” Her dad grinned.
“Funny, Dad. And I have to go online. She said there’s a leaflet you can download about clean-ups from the council website. I need to do the email too. How much does a skip cost, Dad?”
“Depends on the size – a good big one is about a hundred and fifty pounds.”
“Wow,” Izzy muttered. “That’s a lot. But I can’t think of anything else we need to buy, except paper for making posters.”
“Oh, and bin bags as well. That leaflet might tell you some more stuff,” her dad suggested.
“I wish we knew if the council people were going to say yes.” Izzy sighed. “I suppose we could start planning fundraising ideas anyway.”
“I can’t believe it takes so much fuss to organise tidying something up,” Emily moaned at break. They hadn’t had time to talk it over properly before school. “It ought to be the council’s job to tidy it up anyway! Why aren’t they just saying sorry, we’ve been useless and it’s got in a mess? They should be paying us!”
Izzy nodded. For once, she totally agreed with Emily. They should get someone to take a photo in case it never happened again.
“They ought to say yes, though,” Maya said thoughtfully. “I mean, why would they say no? So if we are allowed, when shall we do it?”
“I thought maybe three weekends from now?” Izzy suggested. “That gives us time to put posters up, and send the information to the paper. But the tricky thing is that we need to raise the money for a skip, and some bin bags. My dad said a skip could be as much as a hundred and fifty pounds.”
Maya nodded. “How are we going to get all that?” she murmured.
“Food,” Poppy said firmly. “Don’t you remember the cake sale we had for the Guide Dogs last term?” It had been their class charity. “We made fifty pounds then, and I bet we could have charged more for those cakes. People pay loads!”
“Yes, and we ought to have it on a Tuesday,” Emily agreed. “On a Tuesday, at lunchtime. Tuesday lunch is always awful, it’s random-pasta-and-stew-day. We’ll sell out in minutes.”
Poppy laughed. “Good idea. And that means we could make the cakes at the weekend. My mum won’t mind helping make some…” She trailed off. “But not enough for a whole cake sale. That would take a whole lot of butter and sugar and stuff.”
“No, we’ll have to do what we did for the refreshments at the show, buy the ingredients, and pay ourselves back from what we make,” Izzy agreed. “We could all make some, couldn’t we?”
Emily nodded. “I’ll have to make something Toby and James don’t like, otherwise they’ll never get as far as school. Minty cakes. Neither of them can stand mint. Can you get mint cake?” she added doubtfully.
“Peppermint creams?” Poppy suggested. “They’re easy. And most people like them, even if Toby and James wouldn’t.”
“Oooh, yes! I love them. And I can make them peppermint fish, because we’re raising money to clean up the river.” Emily beamed.
“Let’s go and ask Mrs Angel if we can do it,” Maya suggested, jumping up from the bench.
“What, now?” Izzy asked, rather uncertainly. Mrs Angel was not the easiest person to chat to.
Maya shrugged. “We could at least ask Mrs Brooker if we could talk to her.” Mrs Brooker was the school secretary, and she acted like she was Mrs Angel�
��s bodyguard sometimes.
“Oh! Look!” Emily twisted Maya round. “Mrs Angel, talking to Mr Finlay.”
Poppy grabbed Izzy’s arm, and pulled her across the playground to the main door where the two teachers were standing. “Excellent. Mr Finlay told us to find a new project, he’ll have to help us with Mrs Angel.”
Mr Finlay looked slightly daunted when the four of them arrived in front of him, smiling hopefully. “Did you want something, girls?”
“We’ve thought of a new project,” Izzy told him. “You did say we should,” she added, when he looked lost. “There’s a really messy bit of river bank at the bottom of Illroy Park – it used to be a nature reserve, and we think it still is, officially. It should be really beautiful, and my dad says there used to be rare birds, and plants.” She took a deep breath, and watched Mrs Angel. “We’ve applied to the council for permission to organise a clean-up weekend and sort it out, in a few weeks’ time. But we need to raise some money first, to hire a skip. So please can we have a cake sale?”
Emily nudged her.
“Er, on a Tuesday? Next Tuesday?” Izzy added. “And would it be all right to mention the clean-up in the school newsletter for the next couple of Fridays? And put posters up?”
Mrs Angel shook her head. “You four girls amaze me. I would have thought the fashion show would be enough for a while.”
“Izzy’s got the organising bug,” Poppy told the head. “She’s very good at it.”
“A future head teacher in the making.” Mrs Angel smiled at her, and Izzy tried not to look horrified. She couldn’t imagine anything worse than being a teacher. Imagine having to try to tell people like Ali and Lucy and Elspeth to shut up and get on with their work. She would have a nervous breakdown after a week.
“A community clean-up sounds like a very good idea, girls. You may certainly hold a cake sale. Mr Finlay will help you, I’m sure.” She smiled at him, and hurried away, leaving him staring after her indignantly.