Helping Children Build a Future …with a little help from our friends at the Swiss Re Foundation

Children from the Caldecott Foundation now have some much welcome improvements to their learning and living environment thanks to a very generous donation from the Swiss Re Foundation.  The donation has funded some beautiful enhancements to our Smeeth site, on the grounds of our primary and secondary schools., as well as improvements to a play therapy room for children who live in our homes.

Members of staff from the UK Swiss Re offices in Folkestone came together to donate their time this summer for a Community Day.  On a very hot August day, thirty people volunteered their time and energy carrying out work from painting, to building furniture, clearing forest paths, planting new seat planters in Secondary, and building a wooden outdoor table, swings and play equipment.  Other members of the team helped to improve our Childcare and Development Library – digitally cataloguing thousands of books dating back to the 1930s.

Jason Richards (CEO of Swiss Re UK) said “Nobody can imagine the trauma that some of the children at the Caldecott Foundation have endured in their young lives.  If we can spend a few hours volunteering or donating funds to make their lives easier in some small way, then that can only be a good thing.”

“We have supported Caldecott Foundation for the past five years.  We love coming here, it gives us a chance to give back to our community and get involved with something completely different from the day job.  Our Community Day programme gives us all a great feeling, to leave knowing you have made a difference and take away a sense of accomplishment.  Whilst the day helps the charity, it also allows our team to work with colleagues from other departments.  We also enjoy coming back and seeing how the site has changed over the past 12 months and really appreciate the difference our work has made.

Staff from the Caldecott Foundation joined in on the day to contribute to the team effort.

“It was a really successful day”, said Cassie Potter, our Land Based Teacher in Secondary at the Caldecott School said “everyone has worked so hard, they are such a tremendous group of people and we achieved so much – for which we are so terribly grateful, of course.  I cannot wait to see the children’s reactions to everything when they are back in September!”

“We do so appreciate the relationship that we have with the Swiss Re Foundation, both in financial support and the many hours of volunteer time given by the staff in their Folkestone office.