The group of 13 graduates built a new water and sand sensory area at The Children’s Adventure Farm Trust (CAFT), as part of their annual community volunteering project.
The charity provides support for terminally ill, disabled and disadvantaged children from all over the North West.
In the weeks leading up to the project, the group of Redrow trainees designed the play area, planned a schedule of work, and sourced all the materials on a zero budget, with help from Redrow suppliers and contractors.
Ian Eccles, CEO of The Children’s Adventure Farm Trust, said: “We're really grateful to Redrow and the colleagues involved for their hard work planning and building this fantastic new sand and water play area. We've been very impressed by the commitment and skills involved to bring the plans to life, and the efforts of everyone involved on site.
“This area will be very well used and enjoyed by the many thousands of children who visit CAFT each year. It had its very first users the day after completion, and the feedback was a big thumbs up! This work has also helped kickstart a larger project, which will see a new sensory walkway created, so our thanks again to Redrow for making magic happen."
CAFT helps children of all abilities aged 17 and under who, through no fault of their own, miss out on the normalities of childhood. The needs of the children visiting the farm are complex. They range from severe physical and learning disabilities, sensory impairments and terminal illnesses through to children who act as carers for a family member, bereaved children and children who have witnessed and been victims of abuse.
Redrow graduate trainee Ruben Codinha said: ““CAFT is such a wonderful charity and we’re pleased we could lend a hand to create this play area as part of their wider sensory walkway project.
“It was a great experience to manage the project right through from planning the layout using CAD technology to installing the play area on site. We were able to use the knowledge we’ve gained during our graduate training programme over the last 18 months and complete everything on time.
“It also helped expand our practical skills as we have built many of the elements by hand including a bench, kitchen area and tables with a built-in water play features. We also create a new path using sand and shingle and had help from some of Redrow’s apprentices to build the water and sand boxes, bird boxes and hedgehog houses.”
The team of graduates sourced materials from some of Redrow’s suppliers including wood, bark and plants. They also upcycled some items already onsite, creating extra benches from pallets.
Many hours of preparation work and on-the-day volunteering were invested by the graduates and subcontractors, with in excess of £3,000 worth of goods and materials all contributed to make the project a success. Bethany Toomey, graduate programme manager at Redrow, said: “The graduates all worked so hard, and showed real dedication and teamwork during both the planning phase and the completion of the project. It was a pleasure to see them utilise the skills they have developed over the last 18 months while participating in Redrow’s Graduate scheme.
“We’d also like to thank Ian and everyone at CAFT for allowing us to support such a worthy cause.”
Our graduates and CAFT have thanked the following companies and individuals for their generous contributions to the project:
• Miracle Design & Play, which supplied two pieces of play equipment free of charge
• Lex Autolease for transportation of the play equipment from London to the North West
• Travis Perkins for providing discounted play bark and landscape sheet
• Chandos for loan of groundwork equipment
• Redrow customer service technicians and apprentices for building and supplying play equipment, bird houses and a hedgehog house Redrow’s graduate community programme is well-established and, each year, a different project is chosen.
We offer several different graduate training programmes, as well as our own sponsored degree programme for undergraduates, apprenticeships and other vocational training
