We recently matched up a corporate team of staff looking to do a day’s volunteering in the community. The organisation is a pharmaceutical company so it seemed a good match with the Ninewells Community Garden based in the hospital grounds. The team helped out for a day on the 7th June during Volunteers Week and made a real difference in the few hours that they contributed to the garden – maybe they might be back again next year.

Iain Wallace, Senior Hospital Representative for Pfizer who contacted us to help connect up to a community organisation told us this about the day:

“We’re really lucky to work for an organisation who supports Volunteering and gives all employees the opportunity to support and work with local charities. As a team we feel we can really add value to local charities whilst at the same time spending time together as a team to strengthen our culture. We all really enjoyed spending time working in the Ninewells Community Garden and hope our collective efforts made a positive difference to the patients and visitors that use the Garden.”

 

Sarah Griffiths, Ninewells Community Garden Manager told us how much the team achieved in their day:

“Many thanks for introducing us to Pfizer! They were a great help in the garden, and worked hard to give our fruit trees some much needed attention with weeding, mulching, watering, and creating stone circles with woodchip – they look great! They then went on to do a lot more weeding and tidying, so it was a huge help. Sometimes, jobs in the garden can remain on the bottom of the ’to do’ list for ages, so having an enthusiastic team in can really help. It also helped that the sun was shining, though it was a bit hot for working!”

How to get your organisation involved?

Many corporate and private companies offer a day or more employer supported volunteering. It is not always the easiest to match up as most groups in the voluntary sector are looking for more regular support but there are some groups that can support a small team for a day usually to help with manual type opportunities so be prepared for a day of hard work! In Dundee there are many community gardens, allotments, the Dighty Burn and other outdoor spaces that can always do with a group of additional hands to help out. These need to be planned ahead of time so make sure you start thinking about this a few months before you want to do it. You can get in touch with Wendy Taylor, Volunteering Team Leader to find out more. Contact wendytaylor@volunteerdundee.org.uk