Volunteers’ Week: Celebrating Our Amazing Team!
Volunteers’ Week is all about shining a spotlight on the incredible contributions volunteers make to communities across the UK. We’re thrilled to recognize, celebrate, and thank our fantastic team members who give their time to make a difference!
Gloria Velasco, Quantity Surveyor, has been volunteering with Stitched Up since October 2022. Stitched Up champions sustainable fashion with a powerful manifesto that promotes respect for our planet, support of fair wages for garment workers worldwide, recycling, upcycling, reducing waste, and fostering a community that shares skills and ideas.
Most recently, Gloria has been involved with Stitched Up in the Stretford community dye garden project. She has been going every week helping to plant seeds to build the dye garden. The project will increase local people’s access to quality green space and provide an opportunity to learn about growing and using plants to dye fabric and more.
Stretford community dye garden project
Caz Rennie, Director of People and Culture, recently became a Trustee at Oldham Foodbank. Caz has taken on a wide range of tasks as part of this new role. She attends Board Meetings, helps advise the charity on HR matters and is currently spending time reviewing procedures and documentation. She also volunteers in the warehouse and delivers food parcels to people’s homes.
Over 90% of the food distributed by foodbanks in The Trussel Trust network is donated by the public. Food donations are absolutely vital to the foodbank’s ability to give everyone referred to them a balanced and nutritious three-day supply of food.
As it can be seen from Caz’s photos below from the warehouse, the foodbank is running low on various items. Their shopping list shows the food items that they need right now:
- Juice/cordial
- Tinned meat
- Tinned fruit
- Tinned tomatoes
- Pasta/rice
- Tinned cat and dog food
- (They have plenty of baked beans!)
If anyone (from our Walker Sime team or not) would like to donate any items, please drop them off in the Manchester office and Caz will ensure that they are taken to the foodbank. Additionally, if anyone is interested in volunteering, the foodbank is short of volunteers on a Tuesday afternoon. Please get in touch with Caz for more details.
Oldham Foodbank’s warehouse
Joe Lamb, Quantity Surveyor, regularly donates blood and rallies colleagues to join him. A big shout out to John Doyle and Will Magee for giving blood recently. The NHS needs all blood types, and with Walker Sime’s employer-supported volunteering, our team donated during work hours.
Cathy Palmer, Director of Regeneration Delivery, is a Board Member for Make it Happen. Cathy supports projects that benefit Birkenhead residents, fostering connections between local councils, developers, and contractors to ensure social value flows to those who need it most. Cathy says:
“I support MIH in pursuing one of its main objectives which is to generate opportunities for local Birkenhead residents to benefit from regeneration activity in the town. MIH work with vulnerable people within the Birkenhead community- running a ‘pay as you feel’ social supermarket and a community living room which hosts classes such as talking therapy for men, support in accessing services, health checks, and just somewhere to meet other people and feel part of a community. They support people and give people a reason to get out of bed in the morning, making sure every member of the community has someone to talk to and doesn’t go hungry. My work involves fostering links between Wirral Council, the projects they’re pursuing, and developers and contractors to create opportunities for social value to flow directly towards MIH, who are best equipped to ensure this benefit flows through to local people. I have supported MIH in having a voice in the evolving masterplan for Dock Branch Neighbourhood – the area that surrounds where MIH is based from. And I have supported the CX- Amy Butterworth in having a platform at UK REiiF to talk about the importance of involving the community in regeneration proposals, enabling her to connect with Wirral Council, Muse, Pagabo & Stockport Council”.
To cap off Volunteers’ Week 2024, we organised a corporate event with The Bread and Butter Thing. Six of our team members packed bags, organised stock, and loaded vans, ensuring essential provisions reach low-income households. Huge thanks to Jo Moth, Georgia White, Matt Edwards, Chris Walker, Gloria Velasco, and Alison Pemberton for their hard work!
The Walker Sime team volunteering with The Bread and Butter Thing during Volunteers’ Week
We believe that the construction industry has the power to transform the built environment, making it better and more inclusive. We are accredited with the Workplace Wellbeing Charter, are a Member of the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter, are an accredited Living Wage Employer and are Positive Planet accredited. These accreditations illustrate our long-term commitment to being an excellent employer, adopting the best possible working practices and developing a social conscience within our team.
At Walker Sime, social responsibility is in our DNA. We’re proud of our team’s dedication to making a lasting positive impact on our communities.
For nationwide multi-disciplinary construction consultancy, including Quantity Surveying, Project Management, Infrastructure Services, Regeneration Delivery, Construction Design Management, Bills of Quantities and more, call us on 0161 872 9955, email hello@walkersime.co.uk or message us here.
