Heathrow school children take part in national employee volunteering day
BT and British Airways support ‘Give & Gain’ day with community games event in Middlesex
BT and British Airways are supporting ‘Give & Gain’ day, the UK’s national day of employee volunteering, by holding a community games event at the Concorde Club part of British Airways Clubs, in Middlesex today (Friday May 16).
Give & Gain Day is a global celebration of the power and potential of employee volunteering. It sees thousands of people across the globe spend a working day volunteering for good causes in their local community. Since 2008, more than 100,000 people in 35 countries around the world have taken part.
More than 200 children from four local Heathrow primary schools, Spelthorne Primary School, Grange Park Infant & Nursery School, River Bridge Primary School and Spring Grove Primary School, will be attending the afternoon session to participate in fun filled games and multi sport activities.
As part of BT and British Airways volunteering schemes, 80 volunteers from both organisations will be working together towards a certificate in sports leadership, learning how to lead young people in a variety of sports.
Anne Heal, BT’s volunteering managing director, said: “We want to encourage these young people to see what a huge range of sports are available and that everyone can take part and feel good. I’m hoping we’ll see more than 200 children attend the event.”
BT offers all employees up to three days a year to volunteer for initiatives as part of the company’s Better Future programme. The BT Community Challenge and BT Troubleshooter programmes develop partnerships with charities and community groups where BT people can share their skills. BT also gives employees the opportunity to volunteer for activities, about which they are personally passionate. During 2013-14 BT people gave over 46,000 days to local communities.
Mary Barry, British Airways community investment manager, said: “We are delighted to support ‘Give & Gain’ day, which enables colleagues to develop their skills, engage with our local community and work in collaboration with partner organisations such as BT. We have a long history of engaging with our local community and this is an excellent example of the power of volunteering for good causes. British Airways’ community investment programme, focuses on sustained and positive impact on the communities it serves. The British Airways Volunteer Programme offers a variety of skill based activities where employees are able to support a variety of projects and share their expertise, knowledge and skills with community partners.
“Alongside our volunteering programme we have three other strands to our community investment programme; Flying Start - the airline’s global charity partnership with Comic Relief, which over £7.5 million for good causes. The Community Learning Centre which offers airline related programmes to schools across the Heathrow community and has welcomed over 94,000 young people to the centre since it opened in 1999. Our Community and conservation programmes support over 30 UK registered charities worldwide.”
