There are many very thoughtful people across Fife, Scotland and the United Kingdom who help the Group in all sorts of ways. Without this help we would not be able to achieve everything we do. On this page we will highlight one or two of our hero's every few months as our way of recognising their generosity and kindness.
This month we were donated over £2,000 of new furniture, doors, mirrors and glass from APC (Scotland) Ltd a PTFE Solutions Engineering for Industry company based in Cowdenbeath. Working from the same site is Alderbank Ltd Wooden Flooring Specialists who also donated timber, flooring products and sports equipment to the Group. In the above picture you can see Group volunteer John Band being presented with the first chair from Hugo and Andrew (APC Ltd) and the start of the timber from Niall Simpson (Alderbank Ltd)
At the start of the month the Group purchased a 2 year old tipping trailer from a farm in Chippenham, Wiltshire. This was for our TreeCycle project kindly funded by The Heritage Lottery Fund. Two Group volunteers found themselves in trouble on the M5 while towing it home a tyre shredded. Unable to change the tyre due to technical difficulties the breakdown services head to be summoned. This turned out to be a nightmare of a task and could have resulted in a tow off the motorway to the nearest trailer garage and a long wait until the next morning. Our picture shows Ashley the breakdown mechanic from Overbrook Recovery Services of Gloucestershire, via GreenFlag. His determination for over an hour, even temporary fixing the mudguard had us back on the road. Thanks Ashley, you're a true star and a credit to the company!!!
Everyone in the Group know Bill Sweenie, a long standing supporter of the Group. Bill is a Civillian Instructor with 775 (Burntisland) Air Cadet Squadron and works as the Environmental and Safety Officer for ExxonMobil at their Mossmoran site. Bill is not only a very keen volunteer with the Group but has also for many years helped the Group receive sponsorship from ExxonMobil. The Group plants over 1,000 trees a year for the company and also carries out other work on an area of their site that is used as a wildlife area for local primary schools to visit. An excellent resource and the company should be congratulated as not many companies can say they have a wildlife haven for the use by schoolchildren! Anyway Bill recently won an ExxonMobil European Award for his environmental work at the site. Instead of goung out and using the money on himself he has donated it to Group funds. So a huge THANKS and a GREEN GOOD SHOW award to Bill.
We have been amazed by the sheer thoughtfulness and generosity of a number of very special workers at Carillion PLC. Originally working on the Markinch Rail Interchange project they donated a number of old rail sleepers to the Group for a project. Looking ahead they decided that they would work together with the Group to enhance their company recycling and green policy. Over the months at Markinch we received numerous items and a huge amount of scrap timber destined for the skip. They are now all working on a Flood Prevention Scheme in Edinburgh and have never forgotten us. Over the past 6 months we have received a wealth of concrete products, timber offcuts, surplus piping etc. A number of our conservation projects would never have started without these guys support. Our own wildlife reserve (The Colin Burt Reserve for Wildlife Conservation) has seen the majority of this and we have managed to accelerate the programme of tasks by around 2 years. Hero's they are to us and very shy about it all. Not often do we persuade them to stand infront of a camera but ocassionally we manage to get one or two.
In the picture above you will see Gerry Harper liaising with Stevie the Kilsyth Yard foreman just prior to its closure. Others in the picture are Cazz Burt Project Woodland officer and now also the Group's TreeCycle Project Officer with Chairman Mark Pearson. Patrick Seymour and Gerry Harper organised for the Group to have any items left over when the yard closed, this also stopped many tonnes of material ending up in landfill sites.
In the following pictures you can see the Group receiving items from Carillion.
A huge THANKYOU must go to everyone at Carillion we have met and who have helped us in the past 12 months.
Especially - Patrick Seymour, Gerry Harper, Joe Brown, Donna George and Willie!
Picture Above: Loading the lorry at Kilsyth
Below: More to follow later this week
Gerry Harper handing over some scrap timber and surplus bricks in Edinburgh to Group chairman Mark Pearson, assisted by Paul Coakley and Grace Lamont.
Simon Lockwood has been a tremendous supporter of the Group over the past 2 years. He actually works for Scottish Native Woods but kindly joined us as a volunteer technical adviser. Simon has an amazing knowledge about everything to do with woodlands and machinery. Over the time he has been with us our skills and knowledge has increased while working on projects with him. He has a special way of putting over his knowledge to our young volunteers so they go away remembering what he has taught them. Any request for help and Simon will be there, always with a smile and always full of ideas, enthuasium, support and strength. He is our hero and we could not do with out him, thanks Simon!