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Facebook page for Canterbury earthquake volunteers - Source: ONE News -
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An army of student volunteers helping out in quake-hit Canterbury is expected to grow to substantially by the end of the week, as more join the call to help.
Fifty joined the "Student Civilian Army" initially, but the number has now grown to 350 and now the total is expected to be 2,000 by the end of the week.
Student Sam Johnson put up the call-to-action on social networking site Facebook.
"It's absolutely incredible and it's really great that they've all turned up," Johnson said.
Today the students were cleaning up silt which appeared out of nowhere after the quake hit.
Margaret Palmer was one of those helped by the students, who cleared silt from her yard.
"This is the first help we've had, and it's really, really lovely."
She said many people had come to the area just to sight-see rather than help.
Another resident, Margaret Gambles, said she did not know what she would do if it were not for the students.
"I just couldn't cope with the mess that was here."
Jill Smith said the mess was like "out of a movie".
"Everywhere it was just pockets of mud and slush just coming up out of the ground."
The students say they will be helping out for at least another week.
"Uni's given us the week off so we thought we'd come and help out," said volunteer Blair Marett.
Another team of volunteers was helping in a different way, delivering freshly-baked muffins around the community.
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