So the perks of my job mean that I get to spend some days out of the office with some wonderful volunteers. The place in question is Newport Wetlands Visitor Centre and the wonderful volunteers are 20 corporate volunteers from the Office for National Statistics and Wales & West Utilities.
These two groups of volunteers had chosen to donate their volunteering time to RSPB Cymru for Give and Gain Day. Give & Gain Day is the UK’s only national day of employee volunteering and this year it took place today (Friday 17 May). The day encourages thousands of people across the globe to spend a working day volunteering for good causes in their local community.
The day started out with both groups raring to go, in fact both companies had been busy raising funds for some of the equipment needed to complete the projects a few weeks prior to the volunteering day. What did we get them doing I hear you ask? In the past we have struggled with the timings of Give & Gain day, as May for nature is breeding time – so we do no habitat management and very little estate management. This year our Youth and Education team came up with the perfect creative activity…creating felt mini beasties and creating interpretation slates!
Wales & West Utilities created the felt mini beasties, these will be used in our wildlife garden at the Royal Welsh Agricultural Show, helping us to explain to children and adults why certain plants and other garden features are good for certain species. The interpretation slates will also be used at the show to describe what each plant is, when to plant and what it is good for. A final ask was for wildlife bunting to add a touch of pizzazz! to our garden.
The Office for National Statistics were given a very large pile of wood and asked to create nest box packs that we could use in our summer workshops with children, which would encourage them to go home and create a space for wildlife in their own garden. Whilst this sounds quite simple it’s a very time consuming task and each box needs to be cut to a specific size – with a certain hole size for the bird drilled through, then pre drilled so that they are easy for children to put together. Both teams said they’d had a great day and that it really broadened their skill base and built a great team spirit – so all in all the day was a MASSIVE success!! Thank you to everyone who got involved!Emma Roberts is Volunteer Development Officer for RSPB Cymru, if you have been inspired to do something like this please give Emma a call to discuss it further on 02920 353 000.