Society employees answered local schools call for help, by rolling up their sleeves to restore and improve the garden at Newberries Primary School in Radlett and two classrooms at St Dominic Catholic Primary School in Harpenden.
Both the painting of classrooms and restoration of school gardens proved a little more demanding than some of the Society’s volunteers had expected, but the end results made the mild aches and pains they endured worth it.
Nicola Randolph, Mortgage Administrator, said: “We had a full on workout clearing an outside classroom area, which had logs as seating for the children to explore bugs. My team members; Jean Errington, Business Development Manager and Marianne Forster, Radlett Branch Cashier, helped the school caretaker to clear an area which had been left for six years and so was completely covered with ivy.”
When perseverance pays
“The skip we needed to use was located at the opposite end of the playground, so my Fitbit was on overload pacing back and forth with logs. Nevertheless it was good fun and we were fortunate to have a dry day which wasn’t too hot (although we did work up a sweat). We made a good dent in clearing the area for future use by the children and good fun was had by all, resulting in a bonfire at the end to try to burn off the logs, a pity we didn’t have any marshmallows.”
Laura Tomlinson, Member Services Representative, said: “Painting the Classrooms at St Dominic’s was great fun. It was great to see the difference a fresh lick of paint made to the classrooms used by so many at the school.”
Committed to the communities we serve
The volunteers considered the activities they carried out to be a small measure of their commitment to ‘give back to the community’, and as such will be supporting additional events, including a sponsored walk for the Chiltern MS Centre in Aylesbury on the 22 September and winter social events for the elderly, organised by Harpenden Lions Club.
If your community groups could benefit from the support of Harpenden Building Society volunteers at some stage in 2019, then please let us know as we are happy to support wherever we can. Simply email volunteers@harpendenbs.co.uk with more information about where help is needed.