The infant play area at Teyfant Community School, Hartcliffe will get a much-needed facelift today [September 2], thanks to 20 volunteers from the University of Bristol taking part in a Ground Force-style Community Challenge.
The volunteers have just one day to revamp the school’s infant play area. They will draw and paint games on the tarmac, create a mural and provide lines and goal posts for a small football pitch. They will also create seating around raised planting boxes and replant the garden areas, as well as doing a general tidy up.
This is the University’s first major volunteering project under its new volunteering release-day policy which aims to encourage strong links with the community by allowing University staff a day’s paid leave to undertake voluntary work.
Kim Fitzgerald, the University’s Community Outreach Development Officer said: "We’re delighted to be able to help a local school in this way. Projects such as this create relationships with members of the community who wouldn’t normally have contact with the University.
“We’re also grateful to all the local businesses who've made this event possible by generously contributing goods and services in kind.
“Volunteering is just one aspect of the work done by the University’s Public Programmes Office which includes public lectures, tours of University buildings and collaborative work with the community."
The project has been made possible with the generous help of the following local firms who donated materials free of charge: Talbot-Owen Ltd - rawlbolts; Johnston Manders Paints – 10 tins of paint; Bristol Steam Specialists - galvanised pipe for goal posts; Taylor Plant Surfacing - holes for supports; The Wring Group - rubbish skip; M J Patch & Sons - supports for seating; Avon Plywood Ltd - decking for seating; Fountain Timber Products Ltd - decking for seating; Travis Perkins plc - 12 Post-mix bags; Keyline Builders Merchants - 5 bags of cold tarmac; Cadburys Garden Centre Ltd – plants; Riverside Garden Centre –plants; Sainsburys - 6 bottles of wine for a celebration ‘thank you’ at the end.
The project’s community link was made through Business in the Community/Bristol Cares Initiative.