Local five star housebuilder, Barratt Homes North East, has supported a local football club by donating £1,000 towards new kits. Staff from the company also took time out of their busy schedules to help redecorate the changing rooms as part of their annual ‘Donate a Day’ volunteering programme. The initiative sees staff take a day away from their usual role to spend time assisting their community with projects.
Samantha Swanston, Marketing Manager for Barratt Homes North East, attended the club in Slatyford with 11 additional members of the Barratt team, where they spent the entire day sprucing up the communal space. This involved covering the walls in a vibrant blue paint, which matches the club’s kit colours, and cleaning up the area.
The idea for the redecoration project was pitched by Barratt’s Assistant Site Manager at North Gosforth Park, Michael Spurr, who is also a coach for Montagu FC in his spare time. As part of the annual ‘Donate A Day’ initiative, staff are offered the chance to present ideas for the business to take part in and discuss their reasons why. Michael, who is heavily involved in the club’s day to day running, submitted the idea to give back to the club and refresh the old changing room space to create a better environment for the players using the building for their training and matches.
Michael Spurr, Assistant Site Manager at North Gosforth Park, commented: “We’re extremely grateful for all of the team members at Barratt who took the time to support the renovation of the club’s changing room. I work really closely with the football club, which is a real community hub for young people in the area, and I know that the children were all thrilled to see the updated rooms and to receive their brand new kits.”
Samantha Swanston, Marketing Manager for Barratt Developments North East, commented: “We were delighted to spend a day down at the football club to update the space and we’re so pleased that the team loved the new space! We were also pleased to see the new kits, which were given to six of the teams. Here at Barratt Homes we always work really hard to give back to the communities that we build in and the Donate A Day initiative is just one of the ways that the team are able to do that.”