27 October 2010
Staff from Roche Products Ltd really showed Keech Hospice Care - their chosen charity of the year 2010 - what they are made of when they took part in several large volunteering projects, making a massive difference to everyone across the hospice.
September turned out to be an action-packed month for the Roche volunteers, who very kindly gave their time to work on four major projects including the revamping of the Teenager’s Room, working in the Children’s Garden, working in the Keech shops & warehouse and delivering IT training to Keech staff.
Tracy Maddox, Keech Hospice Care’s Account Manager responsible for Roche Products Limited, said, ‘I was delighted to be approached in August by a group of employees from the Biometrics Department of Roche, to participate with volunteering activities at the hospice. Although we have a number of corporate volunteering tasks completed at Keech Hospice, this was the largest project to date involving around 100 employees. The work had to be based around ‘team building’ and the four projects that were submitted were definitely that!’
Lesley Struthers, Head of Pharma Development at Welwyn Garden City-based Roche, said, ‘This is the first time we’ve sent a team in to work on a volunteering project. We were going to attend team-building training but then thought, why don’t we work with a charity? In a way, this has been a kind of test but it has been nice doing something out of the norm and out of the office and everyone had a great time doing it – it’s almost like doing your hobbies for charity!’
Lesley continued, ‘We’ve just been put together as a new department so it has been really great for us to learn to work as a team as well as helping to raise awareness of the existence of places such as Keech Hospice Care. It has been harder work than we expected – there are all sorts of things to consider such as certain standards, risk assessments and healthy and safety issues for each project, but it has all been a hugely satisfying experience and one that we would definitely do again. I don’t think the teams will ever forget ‘taming the garden jungle’ or feeling like they were on The Apprentice when negotiating shop prices!’
Tracy Maddox added, ’This is a fabulous example of how corporate volunteers can make so much of a difference to places like Keech. Everyone here is so grateful for what the Roche teams have done and how they have transformed the place. If only everyone could see the teenagers’ faces light up when they saw their newly decorated common room they would realise just what a difference their help could make.’
For further information on how your company can help support Keech Hospice Care, go to www.keech.org.uk/corporate
