Many Helping Hands make light work

Six hard-working members of Two Rivers Housing staff spent one of the hottest days of the summer transforming a children’s play area at Berry Hill Primary School.
The team representing five different departments across the not-for-profit organisation cleared a mound of brambles, ferns, nettles and weeds from the infants’ playground, then laid a membrane and four tonnes of woodchip. They also found time to trim trees and prune a bush to create a den and complete their project.
Travis Perkins also supported the day by providing gardening tools, the weed membrane and woodchip.
This was the first of the housing association’s “˜Helping Hands’ activities of the summer which gives staff a day of their time to support a local community project.
Last year, 121 staff gave 900 hours of their time supporting 16 community projects which included gardening, maintenance, painting, litter-picking and stream clearance for hospices, playgroups, schools, and groups supporting the elderly, people with disabilities or mental health issues.
Anthea Tawney, Governance Co-ordinator, said: “It was hot work, but we had a great day. Everyone worked really hard and it was incredibly rewarding to see the difference we made and to hear the positive comments from parents, teachers and the children.”
Glenys Walker, a teacher at Berry Hill School, said: “Massive thanks to the Two Rivers Housing Helping Hands project and Travis Perkins for making Berry Hill School the lucky recipients of a much-refurbished bark chip play area for the children. It was a very warm day and wow, did they work hard? Absolute stars. They did an amazing job and we are all incredibly grateful.”