YOUNGSTERS joined Darlington's Rotary Club in a green fingered challenge recently.

Children from St John's Primary School got their hands dirty during an international tree planting challenge at the Rockwell Nature Reserve, off Haughton Road.

The Rotary Club had purchased 100 trees for the site's new community woodland area and invited the year six pupils to help them complete a challenge set by the president of Rotary International 2018 to plant a tree for every Rotarian in the world.

The school children who took part did so as part of their efforts to be more involved in their community, as driven by the UK-wide #iwill campaign, which aims to involve six in ten youngsters in social action by 2020.

The campaign, supported by the National Lottery and the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, encourages 11 to 16-year-olds to play a part in projects in their communities in order to make a positive difference.

Pupils at St John's Primary have used their initiative and ideas to organise and take part in a number of events in recent months.

Supported by Groundwork North East and Cumbria, they have focused on creating opportunities for the community, fundraising and raising awareness of on-going environmental issues. As well as working with the Rotary Club to plant the trees, the children also organised a bake sale to raise money to purchase re-usable water bottles.