01 October 2009 16:18
Nottingham school gets ‘Ground Force’ style makeover by eager E.ON volunteers

A team of over 90 dedicated volunteers from energy company E.ON's Retail business recently spent a week in the great outdoors to help transform the gardens at Old Basford Primary School.

The team enjoyed their change of scenery from the office to the outdoors by taking on an enormous number of challenges, including creating vegetable patches and herb gardens, painting seats and panels, building a shade sail and creating lots of paths and planting around the school's gardens.

Ruth Hobbs, one of the willing E.ON volunteers and a key organiser, said: "It was such a fantastic week, I loved every minute of it and felt like Charlie Dimmock on Ground Force!

"We managed to get so much done during the week and everyone worked so hard and built up a real sense of team spirit.

"We turned the currently disused courtyard area inside the school into an outdoor classroom that the students can use all year round to learn about science and nature, and also improved the gardens around the school so they'll have more space to play in.

"The new vegetable and herb patches also mean that the students in the school's gardening club will be able to plant seeds and vegetables themselves and watch them grow.

"Best of all, we managed to find the time to have a game of football afterwards, which everyone really enjoyed after our hard week of grafting."

Mark Precious, Head Teacher at the school, said: "The work the E.ON volunteers have done is absolutely fantastic, they've transformed the most under-used spaces in the school.

"The staff and children can't quite believe how wonderful the courtyard looks. Ruth was a real star in organising all of the work, and the enthusiasm of all the staff was quite something to see."

E.ON finds volunteering opportunities for employees across the UK, working with schools, older people and other vulnerable groups as part of its wider community relations programme. In 2008, E.ON employees spent over 13,000 hours volunteering in their local communities.

Ends

Notes to editors:

• E.ON is one of the UK's leading power and gas companies - generating and distributing electricity, and retailing power and gas - and is part of the E.ON group, one of the world's largest investor-owned power and gas companies. We employ around 17,000 people in the UK and over 92,000 worldwide;
• We're one of the leading green generators in the UK, with 20 wind farms located from Cornwall to Northern Ireland. We also burn biomass material mixed with coal in two of our power stations and have completed one of the UK's largest dedicated biomass power stations at Lockerbie. Combined, our renewable portfolio generates enough green energy to power the homes in a city the size of Manchester.

For more information contact:

Deanna Mooney on 024 7618 3678