Partner Article

Nursery 'Quid’s In' After Helping Hand From Ward

A waste management firm based in Ilkeston has chipped in with a £15,000 community project to refurbish an outdoor play area at a nursery.

Family business Ward Recycling, based on Griffon Road, delivered two free of charge skips, to William Howitt Nursery in Heanor on Thursday, where a team of volunteers have started work on an upgrade to make the outside area into a combined learning and play area.

The skips, which would normally cost £500 to hire, will be used to assist with the clearance of material from the site. Ward also donated goody bags for the children containing backpacks, water bottles, sweets, colouring books and crayons.

The project is being led by Stephen Gascoyne, whose son goes to the nursery on Holmes Street, Heanor. The work will include a new canopy and roofed deck area.

Stephen, who works for Interserve Construction Ltd, was awarded a £2,500 grant for the project from the internal company charity Interserve Employee Foundation. A team of 18 volunteers from the company were on site on Thursday to muck in with the work which is set to continue over the next few weeks. He contacted key suppliers, including Ward, to ask them to donate materials and resources.

James Balfour, financial director at Ward, said: “’When Interserve approached us to help on the project we were more than happy to assist. We always look to support local projects and hope we can work with them again on any other worthy projects that are undertaken.

“I am sure the children will be thrilled to see the new outdoor learning area, hats off to Interserve for their generosity and efforts to make this happen.”

Nursery teacher, Nicola Gregg, said: “I’m quite excited for it to be finished. I know Stephen because we went to school together. We applied for the grant in the summer and held a cake sale which raised £230. We also raised £725 on a GoFundMe page.”

More information can be found at ward.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Poppy-PR .