Vets4Pets colleagues painting Buckhurst Park Communtiy Centre's classroom
VET GROUP HELP LOCAL CHARITIES FOR COMMUNITY DAY
7 years ago 
1638 views
Swindon-based veterinary group Vets4Pets, has donated more than 380 hours to support a number of Wiltshire charities.
Colleagues from Vets4Pets Support Office lent 64 pairs of helping hands to seven local good causes, including Swindon Women’s Aid, South Marston Parish Council and Uplands Educational Trust.
The support is the first of the veterinary group’s ‘Community Days’, with ten more colleagues helping Swindon’s Food Bank at the end of November. Yesterday’s Community Day was to mark the group’s anniversary of moving to Swindon.
One year ago, Vets4Pets officially opened its new Support Office headquarters in the original wheelhouse of Isambard Brunel’s railway works, after the team outgrew its previous premises in Oxfordshire.
Each of the 64 colleagues worked hard from 9am - 3pm, helping with a variety of tasks to support the local organisations, from landscaping and paving slabs, to helping with Halloween activities and painting.
Dr Huw Stacey, vet and director of clinical services at Vets4Pets, said: “We’ve all absolutely loved our first year in our new offices in Swindon.
“Our new premises in the beautiful Isambard building not only provides a better working environment for our teams, but also offers the opportunity to get involved with a wonderful new community.
“To celebrate our one-year anniversary in Swindon, we wanted to immerse ourselves into the community and couldn’t think of a better way to do that, than by offering our support and time to some brilliant local causes.
“We are thrilled so many colleagues have stepped forward to get involved and hopefully our 384 hours of volunteered time will help make a positive change in the community.”
Involve Swindon has worked with Vets4Pets to facilitate the Community Day, helping to organise the volunteer work for each of the seven projects.
Uplands Educational Trust (UET), Empower the Gambia, Hreod Burna Urban Forest, Buckhurst Park Community Centre, Swindon Women’s Aid, South Marston Parish Council and Hop, Skip & Jump, are the organisations the Vets4Pets teams offered their time and assistance to throughout the day.
Ten of the group’s colleagues visited UET’s Community Enterprise Centre in Penhill, to replace the uneven slabs in the centre’s outdoor garden.
Sarah Gillam (nee Howes), head of charitable services at UET, said: “At UET, we offer college education, work placements, mentoring, and leisure and social clubs to young people with disabilities.
“Some of the young adults we help at the Community Enterprise Centre; home to our Skills for Life day programme, are restricted to wheelchairs, and unfortunately the uneven pathway in our garden can make it difficult for them to access.
“That’s why we are incredibly grateful to the Vets4Pets colleagues for repaving our garden. Their time is invaluable to us and we couldn’t have done it without their support.”
More colleagues helped South Marston Parish Council maintain St Julian’s Woodland, a project the Council manage in partnership with Wiltshire Wildlife Trust.
Barry Thunder, councillor at South Marston Parish Council, said: “For the past 15 years we have been working alongside Wiltshire Wildlife Trust to preserve St Julian’s Woodland and make it a place that local schoolchildren, and those visiting from the city, can enjoy.
“We are lucky enough that local businesses, like Vets4Pets, can come and get involved, particularly the younger colleagues, who can assist with tasks that some of our older retired volunteers may struggle with. We really appreciated them coming down yesterday.”
26 colleagues also lent a hand to some painting and decorating, 15 at Swindon Women’s Aid and 11 at Buckhurst Park Community Centre.
Swindon Women’s Aid provides 24-hour emergency refuge and support to victims of domestic abuse, housing 22 families in need on its purpose-built complex.
While Buckhurst Park is a volunteer-managed community centre in Walcot, which offers social bookings to the community, as well as English lessons to the local Nepalese residents.
Karen Jacklin, volunteer at Swindon Women’s Aid, said: “It means the absolute world to us that the Vets4Pets colleagues have helped decorate and clean the flats at our refuge.
“Our complex is a safe haven for families who have suffered, so it is important to us that we maintain the flats, but as we dedicate all our time to helping the women and their children, we often don’t have any spare time for maintenance.
“The only thing we can’t afford is time, which is why we feel so grateful and privileged that the team chose to offer their hours to come and help our charity, it’s amazing.”
“The Vets4Pets colleagues have helped us redecorate our classroom which we use to teach English to ex-gurkhas and their wives who live in the local area,” added David Bell, centre administrator at Buckhurst Park Community Centre.
“The Vets4Pets team coming down was a great help and also a brilliant way for everyone to meet, socialise and learn about different people in the local community.”
More from Vets4Pets
- Pets at Home Foundation Raises over £1 Million for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People Charity
- Vets for Pets: Extensive Basildon Pitsea Refurbishment Unveiled
- Vets For Pets: Basildon Pitsea to Reopen Following Extensive Refurbishment
- Vets for Pets: Washington Veterinary Practice Expansion
- Bristol Veterinary Practice Unveils Expansion