The very first CMP Annual Volunteering Day took place at Brookwood Cemetery in the week before Remembrance Sunday: a remarkable, historic location for a small army of volunteers to contribute to the upkeep of this unique place.
Volunteers from 14 Member companies assembled under the watchful eye of the Deputy Manager of the Cemetery:
'The day was a great success: so much work was done!
We filled a 30 ton green waste skip and over 150 one-ton bags of green waste - in under 3 hours! Litter pickers filled over 10 bags of rubbish. In addition, about 12 tons of rubble was disposed of to help establish a walkway from the railway tunnel. It looks amazing!
The volunteer team completed about 3 to 4 weeks' of work in a day. Our thanks to CMP and those involved for doing an outstanding job.'
During the day, work involved clearing the site of the former Necropolis Railway, now disused, opened in 1854 to carry corpses and mourners from London to Brookwood and which had become overgrown over the years.
To everyone's surprise and delight, volunteers unearthed two wheels which may prove to be part of the original Necropolis train itself!
Thomas Pottinger joined Amanda Williams, co-owners of Porter Garland, chartered accountants in Camberley, to participate in their team's first AVD. Tired but very happy, Thomas reflected on the experience and also about why they had chosen to join CMP this year: 'Community value is central to Porter Garland.
So it was really important that we found an organisation we could work with where we could give back to the community.
And that's what CMP allows us to do.
In terms of staff engagement, I asked the team here today would they come back and every single one said 'yes'.
It's fabulous!'
Companies taking part in the day included staff from:
ally & mo media; Alphabet; Asahi; BMW Group UK; Butt Miller; Cre8tive Space; Herrington Carmichael; Leapfrog Marketing; Porter Garland; Signwrite Studios; Stewart & Co; Talk Technology and TVision Technology
Rachel Austen, who organised and managed the event for CMP, was understandably pleased at the outcome:
'It's great to see the way that people got so involved in this project. Since we planned the day, it's attracted such a lot of interest from our Members who want to do something for this extraordinary place.
Talking to Avril (Avril Kirby, Manager of Brookwood Cemetery) I hope that from now on, this will be a regular event in the CMP calendar of Annual Volunteer Days.'
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