PRE-school staff have thanked the community for rallying round in their time of need.

When it closed its doors in March the future of Cylch Meithrin Machynlleth was uncertain but the local community has helped by supporting the ‘Tyfu ein Gardd’ appeal.

A spokesman said: “The money raised has been absolutely vital to ensure that the Cylch has been able to move forward and develop our outdoor area and prepare the Cylch for safe reopening.

“In addition to the money raised through our GoFundMe page, we also received a grant from the Moondance Foundation which allowed us to regenerate our outdoor area. Our priority was to ensure that the children had access to the outdoor area, especially as the Welsh Government guidelines state that this is the best place for the children to enjoy their time at the Cylch safely.

“Our outdoor area was unusable after a few days of rain, it was getting too muddy and slippery for the children to use safely and it was very difficult to keep up with mowing.

“We used the money we got from Moondance to develop the area, we were able to ‘extend’ this money because of the kindness of our local businesses.

“Special thanks to Dafydd Hughes and his team for their hard work digging, leveling and preparing the ground for artificial grass and to Hefin at Travis Perkins, Machynlleth for helping us with the sand, wood and artificial grass.”

Aled Jenkins, the father of one of the Cylch’s children, took the time to install the free artificial grass, while Osian of G & M Pryce Ltd also contacted the nursery to offer help.

“When we started fundraising we aimed to raise enough money to buy a shed to store all our resources,” the spokesman added.

“Due to the new Covid-19 guidelines we are using resource boxes for each day of the week to ensure that there is a minimum of 72 hours between the use of toys and resources to limit and reduce the chances of transmitting the virus.

“To be able to do this effectively, we needed a dry and safe place to store our resources. We also had to store resources that we couldn’t keep out in the playroom due to Covid-19 guidelines.

“Osian from G&M Pryce contacted us to say that he would like to help, by donating, installing and constructing a bespoke shed for us.” We are extremely grateful for this very generous donation, especially in such a difficult time.

“All the support we have had over this difficult time shows just how incredible, and how generous our community is. We are so lucky to live in such a giving and helpful community.”