A Team made up of members of the UK Concrete Products Management Team spent a day helping at South Yorkshire’s fantastic Children’s Hospice – Bluebell Wood. Laurence Dagley, Damien Allen, Tony Green, Jane Walsh, Katie Salisbury, Nicola Bellas and Matt Tranter spent their day decorating.
The place holds a special significance in Matt’s life as they cared for his daughter, Lauren, in the final weeks and days of her short life almost four years ago. Needless to say he is eternally grateful for the support and care his family received at the time, so when a chance came up to help them with preparations for their new furniture store he was only too pleased to volunteer the skills of his colleagues to come along and help.
Bluebell Wood has been running a small second-hand furniture store on the same Estate for a few years but has now outgrown the space. Recently they acquired 2 units, one to be the new retail store and the other to be a warehouse.
Matt takes up the story…
“We arrived and were put straight to work painting. The girls took the furniture display area of the unit where they had to paint some large block walls in a very neutral shade of magnolia. This was no easy task as one of our many resident concrete block experts pointed out that a large majority of the blocks were not paint grade, therefore, frustrating and time-consuming to paint. This also caused a fair amount of paint to be applied in areas outside the wall as evidenced in the quantity of paint ending up in Katie’s hair!
The boys were given the retail area to paint (this may have been down to the fact that Damien was wearing some very professional looking utility trousers with pockets on the OUTSIDE). This involved preparation of the walls and a few doors for painting and varnishing. The walls were expertly cleaned and filled by Tony and Damien, whilst Laurence and I prepped the doors for varnishing. Unfortunately there was a discrepancy between my standard of preparation and Laurence’s, so I was reassigned to make a cup of tea and think about my sanding technique whilst scrubbing the skirting boards…
Once ready the Retail Ops Manager for Bluebell Wood arrived with the paint for the walls – purple… which is the corporate colour for the Hospice but certainly not anyone’s first choice for a wall colour!
Tony, Damien and I set about painting the walls whilst Laurence lovingly restored the entrance doors to nearly their original state (no thanks to me) and we managed to get the large room completed in fairly good time. As you can see from the picture the purple takes over…
We had a great day working together in a way we wouldn’t normally, which was a great way to get to know each other a little better. Big thanks to the Team for coming along and really getting stuck in to the day. The guys at the Hospice are so grateful for any support they receive, be it financially or just time spent. They rely on this support to provide the outstanding level of care which helps so many families.”