On 6 June a lovely team of volunteers from the waste management company, Veolia, volunteered their time to support the Health Way Foundation, NELFT’s charity.  Veolia kindly offer their staff members corporate volunteer days which allow the staff time to go and make a difference within their local community.

The team of 8 came along to Brookside Adolescent Unit to clear up the garden area next to the OT room so that they young people could start using it over the summer. 

Over the course of the day the garden transformed from being a plain green area to a useable space with horticultural elements for the young people to use and grow their own flowers and vegetables.  The volunteer team put in four raised flower beds, three with seeds planted and one left for the young people to create their own. 

Bark was donated and put all around the edging of the area and one of the volunteers did a fantastic job painted and upgrading the bird feeder that was looking a bit worn!

The entire area was weeded, swept down, cleaned and cleared and the staff were amazed with the transformation! 

Bark, compost, seeds, watering cans, paint and most importantly eight volunteers time were all donated on this day to go towards supporting the Brookside unit and it came just in time for the wonderful weather last week so the young people could go outside and use the area!

Barbara Robson, Brookside Administrating Manager & P.A. Brookside Service Manager said,

“This wonderful team of volunteers came in and transformed a sad looking yard into a garden. It is now a welcoming, space for the Young People to relax and even have a go at growing   fruit, vegetables and flowers. We are so grateful, the team worked so hard. I am so looking forward to watching it all grow and bloom.”

Feedback from the Young People include:

“I enjoy playing football in the garden when it is sunny”

“I enjoy the scenic view and how peaceful it was/is”

“The seating is nice – variety of options”

“The plants are very pretty, they make the garden more special”

“I like watering the plants and they’re very nice and there is a lot of different varieties of beautiful plants”