Volunteering at Chesnut Tree House children’s hospice
As a family run business, we have always had a strong connection with our local community and we are proud to have supported a number of charities for many years, in various ways.
Last year, the launch of our Travel Places volunteer day – which gives our employees the ability to use up to one day a year for a charitable cause, or sustainability activity – means our staff can now go further in doing their bit for the charities we support.
This summer, a group of Travel Places employees spent the day at Chesnut Tree House – a fantastic charity that provides vital hospice care and community support for children and young people with life-limiting conditions, and their families in Sussex and Hampshire.
Working alongside the on-site gardening team in their maintenance of the hospice grounds, one group worked on ‘traditional gardening’ tasks, pruning back plants from the brick-sided planters, relocating and planting some into the charity’s sensory garden, and emptying out 10-12 barrows of soil from planters.
The second group spent the day working in the memorial garden and were tasked with removing bricks from the patio, cleaning them, and laying them out ready to be resurfaced, managing to nearly clear a whole section before the day was up.
It was hard work but incredibly rewarding, and the team were happy they could give a little something back to the local community and a much-deserving charity.
We had great feedback from the team at Chestnut Tree House. Olivia Albon-Cary, Chestnut Tree House Fundraising Assistant – Major Giving, said:
I just wanted to say a massive thank you to you and to pass on our thanks to your lovely team who volunteered at Chestnut on Tuesday. We have had very positive feedback from our gardening team, who said they were all very helpful and wanted to get stuck in with any jobs they could – I think they thoroughly enjoyed the cupcakes at the end! So, thank you again, we are grateful for your continued support.
We are proud to continue to support Chesnut Tree House and the amazing work they do. In addition to the volunteer day, we have ran a number of fundraising activities for the charity, including raffles, quizzes, the sale of our Scouts Jamboree badges and donations of unwanted clothes, toys and books. We also took part in a big activity challenge, which had our staff run, walk, swim and cycle 10,000 miles – the distance between London and Melbourne during the Women’s World Cup.
