THE Bude Blend youth collective carried out an act of kindness, donating a planter and a card to local legend Margaret Frost, whose business has unfortunately been targeted by thieves recently.

The group wanted to give something back to Margaret, and carried the planter, compost and plants from Bude to Margaret’s Rustic Tea Garden at Northcott on the evening of Tuesday, August 15.

Their card to Margaret read: “Blend is extremely sorry that you got burgled, so we thought that we would give you back something.”

Margaret was overwhelmed with their kindness: “I thought the world of that. I came the next morning and there it was with the most beautiful card and I had a little tear! I thought it was so kind.

“They are so lovely. I felt very touched. Just the thought that they done it and thought about me was lovely.”

The youth collective was set up last January by brother and sister Jamie and Kaylie Wright.

Jamie said: “We know Margaret quite well, we’ve been visiting her for years, and we went to see her the week before and we noticed she was rather down and thought, what could we do?”

They took it to the next Blend meeting where it became a mission to give something back to her.

The group will now turn its thoughts on how it could carry out other acts of kindness at the community’s residential homes, and its next ‘mission’ will be assisting a 91-year-old gentleman who served in the infantry so he is able to attend the Bude at War heritage reenactment weekend in September.

Blend meets on Tuesday evenings from 6.30pm to 8.30pm, currently at the Oceans Community Centre, where youngsters aged 11 to 16 are welcome — although the collective is on the look-out for a permanent space.

Jamie said the idea for a group came from his sister, who runs a dance group, and heard from young people that there seemed to be a gap for activities for youngsters in the town.

Jamie added: “They just walk around Bude, there’s nothing for them to do. We decided to just give it [Blend] a shot.”

The aim is to provide a social environment with a range of structured activities, empowering its members by actively encouraging them to take part in the organisation and running of the group.

With plans for it to become a social enterprise, it is hoped a permanent space would allow it to have an environment with increased opportunities for learning important life skills, increasing trust and taking on further responsibilities.

For more information about Blend, visit http://blendand.com/ or search for BLEND Bude youth collective on Facebook.