Volunteers from CSL Behring transformed a community centre near their office which is a local meeting place for Ukrainian refugees and their British host families.
Thirteen colleagues on their first UK Community Day carried out work including:
- Clearing out a garage store full of rubbish and taking it to the local tip
- Painting a room which will become a community IT suite with computers the refugees and public can use for free
- Transforming the garden, which had become a jungle of overgrown trees, weeds and brambles
- And making macrame plant pot holders to decorate a feature wall of the centre.
As well as the Ukrainian refugees, the Cherry Tree Centre, in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, is used by the Carers Support group, the Age UK charity supporting older people, the Dementia Daybreak group, Escape Youth Club and the Kangaroos charity for disabled children.
The volunteers had to negotiate travel disruption caused by a national rail strike to get to the centre and then worked throughout the day in heat up to 27C.
Claire Sumpter, Volunteering and Communications Lead for Mid Sussex Voluntary Action, which runs the centre, said: “A huge thank you to the entire CSL Behring team who travelled from far and wide to volunteer at The Cherry Tree Centre.
“The team’s enthusiasm, cheerful energy and hard work has made an enormous difference to our community centre space. Their efforts will have a direct positive benefit to our entre users, staff and groups that we support.”
MSVA Chief Executive Gordon Ackroyd added: “It was such a pleasure to arrive at the centre this morning, seeing it transformed. CSL Behring: 5-star team!”
GBR-CRP-0329 July 2022