Thame and District Rotary’s Business in the Community Scheme which involves volunteers from local businesses undertaking community projects, during company time has completed its final two projects for this year. During May and June work has been undertaken over three days by fifteen volunteers from Le Manoir, Lightfoots, Lucy Electric, Richardsons Accountants and Waitrose.
The first task was to undertake a general refurbishment of the outside areas of the Red Kite Family Centre. Day one included jet washing decking and paving and clearing a garden area overgrown with weeds and grass. Day two involved wood treating the decking, balustrading, shed and perimeter fencing. Additionally, the garden area, was covered by three tons of aggregate!
Amy Spicer, Team Leader Red Kite Family Centre said “All of the families, volunteers, trustees and staff at Red Kite would like to express our huge gratitude to the Rotary Club of Thame and District and all of the dedicated volunteers from local businesses, who worked so very hard during the two days they spent with us. The garden space has been completely transformed – one parent thought it was new! It is so wonderful to know that the first impressions of the centre are consistent with the high-quality support the service provides to young families. Since we became a self- funding charity it has been a struggle both financially and timewise to enable maintenance of the site. The ‘business in the community scheme’ has given our outdoor area a new lease of life and the children and families have a clean, bright environment to play and learn together in – thank you so much!”
Lesley Rollason of Lucy Electric said “I spent a beautifully sunny day with a handful of likeminded, happy-spirited volunteers working diligently to clean up The Red Kite Centre outdoor spaces. The day passed in a blur of fun, good laughs and hard work, before we headed off for a well-earned drink! I came away feeling empowered and upbeat. This feeling continued well into the next day when recounting the previous day’s events to my work colleagues. I thoroughly recommend doing your bit for the community. It is an uplifting, charitable thing to do which leaves a smile on everybody’s face. What’s not great about that?!”
John Holland, Senior Manager at Richardsons Accountants said “An extremely fun day, with lots of laughs had by all. A fantastic opportunity to meet new people from the local community. The work was enjoyable and rewarding, the final result definitely gave me a sense of achievement. Highly recommend people to get involved in the future, I certainly will be.”
The second project involved clearing weeds from a very large border in the garden at Meadowcroft Care Home and planting over two hundred plants and shrubs, transforming the gardens for the residents to enjoy. Rachel Greenhough, Manager of Meadowcroft Care Home said “Staff, residents and families all think the new garden is beautiful. We are all very grateful to the Rotary Club members and the volunteers from local businesses for all their hard work. Our garden has been judged today for the OSJCT ‘Best Garden’ Competition. The judges were very impressed with all the voluntary work- so thank you very much once again.”
Samantha Bellia. Partner at Lightfoots said “We are delighted to able to take part in the Rotary Club’s initiative in order to provide support the local community. To see the results at the Red Kite Family Centre and Meadowcroft Care Home working together with other local companies was very rewarding and great fun!”
There has been great support from the wider community for this initiative, including generous donations of paint and decorating materials by Brewers of Aylesbury and a skip donated by Mead Skip Hire Services. Cherry Nurse, a professional gardener, gave her time to design and advise on the garden at Meadowcroft and she collected over two hundred plants. Waitrose enabled the project to benefit from the Community Matters Green Token Scheme.
John Singer from Rotary said, “This has been a really great example of how the community in and around Thame have come together to support its local worthy organisations. This year the response from companies has again been brilliant and the enthusiasm of the volunteers has been outstanding. Within minutes the volunteers from different companies, never having met before displayed great team spirit to work together and get the job done”.
To find out more about the Rotary Club of Thame and District, or to join, please contact visit www.thame.rotary1090.org or www.facebook.com/thamerotary
