Reuben’s Retreat
As part of Box Powers aim to demonstrate that ethical procurement truly works, we have recently launched a new volunteering initiative for our staff. Throughout the year we will be offering our partnered charities a helping hand with any tasks that they need assistance with.
Our staff are delighted with the opportunity to get more involved and to form closer relationships with the charities that we work with, hopefully the help that we provide will enable them do more work within our communities and make a difference!
On Wednesday 18th October, the Box Power Team headed to Reuben’s Retreat to help them with their gardening. Here is a little run down of the day:
10:30am: (30 minutes late due to traffic!): We were greeted by Shannon, Reuben’s Fundraising champion who made everyone a brew to warm up before they began to discuss their duties for the day. Shannon gave us all a rundown of the services that Reuben’s offer to complexly poorly children and their parents. We were taken aback with the amount of services and workshops that they offer, especially for the parents and relatives of the children that they work with, as these are often the people who are forgotten.
This part of the day was a little emotional, but we were cheered up with biscuits!
Around 11:30 am: Shannon gave us a tour of the Reuben’s facilities. What an amazing centre they have! From sensory rooms, cinema rooms to hydrotherapy pools the team should be really proud of everything that they are able to offer the children that they work with.
The little nods to Reuben and his family were such a beautiful touch, and the fact that the entire space was designed to feel homely and less clinical really did make the space feel welcoming, but it was a completely different story when we visited the wing of the centre that has yet to be renovated.
The Reuben’s site was initially a hospital built in early 1866. And whilst it was interesting to see all of the parts of the building that the National Heritage Trust had pointed out as original hospital features, it was extremely spooky and eerie to walk through given that some rooms have been left unused for decades yet still house the old hospital equipment.
Shannon informed us that it would take approximately £3-4 million to complete the renovations required and talked us through the changes they plan to make, although very ambitions the plans sound like they will be life changing for their service users. We can’t wait to see it when they have finished!
We also met Kate on our tour, Reuben’s Grant writer/fundraising champion – She showed us just how jam packed their fundraising diary is, and all of the different upcoming events that the fundraising team were organising to help fund their renovations.
12:30pm: We were finally put to work! We grabbed our trowels, brushes and hoe’s and started to clear mossy paths at the back of the centre to make them more accessible for the volunteers who come to refill the bird feeders and tided up the flower beds that surrounded them.
1:30pm: A quick stop for lunch – Shannon and Kate were kind enough to bring sandwiches and crisps for everyone. We were told all about the centres plans for Halloween and Christmas over a cuppa.
2:00pm: We headed back to work, our newest recruit Benjamin was extremely excited to show off his power tool skills by using the strimmer to cut back the bushes that were preventing staff from parking properly in the car park. Everyone else continued to clear paths, pluck out weeds and do some general tidying up.
We also did a bit of tidying up around the beautiful Reuben’s stone sign that they have at the front of their site, making sure that the area around it reflected just how welcoming the centre truly is.
4:00pm: We said our goodbyes, and headed home a little earlier than planned to beat the traffic. We thanked Shannon and Kate for looking after us all so well throughout the day and vowed to be back soon!
Our day at Reuben’s Retreat has made everyone even more excited to begin volunteering with our other partnered charities – our first experience of being more involved couldn’t have gone any better thanks to Shannon, Kate and the rest of the team.
“We were extremely humbled to be a part of the Reuben’s Retreat Family for the day” – Claire Owen, Head of Risk and Client Retention
“What a wonderful experience, I am proud to have been able to take part and help out” – Joanne Low, Senior Complex Billing Analyst
“We had a great day with the Reuben’s team, I hope that the bits we have done helped them and I can’t wait to come back” – Benjamin Dalby, Pricing Analyst
“We were blown away with how amazing the RR centre is. They really do go above and beyond for their service users and it was just nice to be able to help out any way we could” – Kirsty Treble, Head of Complex Billing Team
