16/07/10
Give & Gain Day 2010 in the South West
Give & Gain Day 2010 was held across the country on Friday 9th July. Here in the South West over 300 volunteers from 20 companies participated on the day to give something back to their local communities. From teams helping with planting vegetable patches, renovating playgrounds and clearing gardens, a variety of projects were carried out across the region which can be seen detailed below.
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Plymouth
Volunteers from HSBC, University College of St Mark and St John, Western Mortgage Services and Morgan Sindell came together to take part in a big garden revamp at Longreach House.
Longreach House is a residential treatment centre for women who have been drug or alcohol dependent. Residents are keen to grow fruit and vegetables and to enjoy the large garden, but desperately needed help to clear space to work with.
Neil Daley, from Western Mortgage Services said "It was really motivating to get out of the office and be involved in a project that will have such a lasting impact in the community. Not only have we made a difference, but we have had great fun and gelled together as a team.”
Bristol
Employee volunteers from Burges Salmon LLP, Capita TVL, Constellation Europe, Grant Thornton, GSS Architecture, John Lewis Cribbs Causeway, Lloyds TSB and Wincanton Plc took part in eight community projects, ranging from planting vegetable patches and renovating playgrounds to building fences and demolishing walls.
Lee Williams, from Young Bristol was delighted with the transformations that had taken place at four of their youth clubs. "Young Bristol and its member clubs are delighted to be the benefactors of Business in the Community's Give & Gain Day initiative. As community-based, voluntary sector clubs, we rely on the kind generosity of the private sector. Even in these difficult trading time, it is truly amazing that companies and their employees are prepared to give their time and money to make a lasting difference to community projects. This is partnership working in the truest sense, where everyone benefits."
GSS Architecture spent a long, hot day at The Grove youth club in Bedminster Down digging up unwanted outdoor play equipment to turn the playground into a badminton court, more suitable for the young people who currently make use of the club.
Mark Stevens from GSS Architecture said “It has been really motivating to all our staff involved in Give & Gain Day to give something back to the community in which they live and work; coupled with this, it has been a great team building exercise for those involved, as well as being, very importantly, incredible fun. It would also not have been possible without the generosity of a number of other local businesses, who have donated materials either free, or at a greatly reduced cost.”
Cornwall
As part of the national Let's Get Cooking campaign, employee volunteers from the Samworth Group including Ginster’s, Kensey Foods and Tamar Foods came together to take part in a big garden revamp Darite Primary School near Liskeard.
The teams created a vegetable garden so the children can learn about where their food comes from and also a fantastic wildlife area for the children to enjoy.
A spokesperson at the school said “The opportunity for us to take part in 'Give and Gain Day' could not have come at a better time. Our head teacher is retiring this term and is thrilled that she will see our long standing plans benefit the children through the hard work of the volunteers. Everyone at the school - children and staff - were so excited. It really is a dream come true!”
Devon
Teams of volunteers from Bray Leino, Kier Western and Devon County Council took part in projects over the county.
The projects included revamping a garden at a local hospice, taking part in a beach clean in conjunction with the Marine Conservation Society and also creating a vegetable garden at a school for disabled children.
Wiltshire
In Chippenham, The Shaw Trust took a day out of the office to transform what was an overgrown piece of land at St Nicholas School, into a vegetable garden for pupils to use for their Let's Get Cooking Club. Raised garden beds were created, undergrowth cut back, and vegetables planted. Pupils from the school worked alongside the volunteers for the day to help them weed, plant and water the newly developed kitchen garden.
Meanwhile in Trowbridge, a team of enthusiastic volunteers from Nutricia went back to school for the day to help Newton Community Primary transform their playground by painting fences in bright, colourful shades and decorating archways with pictures of insects and birds.
A volunteer said "Working on such a worthwhile and fulfilling project in the local community had enabled us to build strong relationships internally and externally. As a team we have achieved our aim of providing a vegetable garden for a school and helping to teach the children the fundamentals of sustaining a healthy lifestyle for the future."
More details of projects will follow, however in the meantime, if your company was involved in Give & Gain Day 2010 in the South West and you have some good pictures of your projects then please do send them onto your local Cares Representative.
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