On Wednesday 18 March a team of 16 volunteers from the University helped revive three neglected courtyards at Cordyce School in Aberdeen.
Working with a team from Lend Lease (the main contractor on the new Rowett building), the hard graft included heavy duty weeding, painting, and general tidying of overrun areas.
Cordyce School provides secondary education and support to young people with a range of educational and behavioural needs. The school will use their outdoor courtyards as calm spaces to work with children.
Talking about the community volunteering project, Fraser Lovie, Policy Adviser said: “The day itself couldn’t have been better. After an early start, the day warmed up to be one of the warmest of the year so far and by tea-break all three groups had got stuck into the task at hand and worked up a sweat. By the late afternoon all the areas were weed and clutter free, freshly painted and ready to be put to use by staff and pupils.
Fraser continued: “This type of University-wide team volunteering project is a great way of supporting our local community, supporting team-building, and undertaking tasks that simply wouldn’t get done otherwise. We were delighted to work alongside Lend Lease who undertook this as part of their corporate commitment to community events on their major projects.”
Luke Nicol, Principal Teacher at Cordyce School said: “The volunteers have done an excellent job in transforming cluttered, overgrown areas into spaces that we’ll now be able to use more regularly with our young people. The time and effort of the University and Lend Lease is greatly appreciated by all at the school.”
For details about the project please contact Fraser Lovie by email at f.lovie@abdn.ac.uk.