It's harvest festival time for the congregation at Dannevirke's St John the Baptist Anglican Church, but for senior St John cadets, there will be little to harvest in the coming months after thieves raided their garden.
The cadets had worked hard to raise seeds, plant a herb garden and native plants and to erect a shade sail as part of the work for their environment badge this term, but they've been left gutted after thieves got away with the sail and more than half the seedlings and all the herbs.
"The plants were all quite healthy and you do have to wonder as to why someone would do something like this," Reverend Jo Crosse, a member of the St John leadership team, said.
For cadet Amber Reed the theft has left her shocked. Amber waters the plants on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings and everything was as it should be Monday night and she couldn't believe they were gone Tuesday evening.