Just an hour - 2009
Yoxford Mulberry Park – April
A team of enthusiastic volunteers from the Suffolk Production team took part in a local project at Yoxford Mulberry Park on the 2nd April, clocking up 60 hours under the Just An hour scheme. The working party undertook the clearance and renovation of the park to allow residents to use the open space again. This included the removal of brambles, overgrown grass and stripping ivy from the trees. The event was identified by the Yoxford Parish Council and arranged by Russell Pearce who works in the Bores area.
A letter was received from the Clerk of the Parish Council thanking the team, and went on to say’ the park now looks splendid’ and that ‘visitors and local people have been complimentary and are making use of the park again’.
Garden makeover at Boreham primary school – May
A group of our employees dug deep to support a local primary school in need of a helping hand. The team of 12, usually based at the Company’s Langford Water Treatment Works near Maldon, transformed the site which had been vandalised into a delightful wildlife garden.
The result of a combined total of 77 hours hard work by the group consisted of raised flower beds with many varieties of new shrubs planted and a shingle walk way. Rachael Raine, Production Team Leader, who led the project said: “We are really proud of the finished result and think
this is a makeover worthy of Ground Force. It was hard work, but well worth it. We all worked well together and built up a really strong team spirit. We hope the pupils and the local wildlife will benefit from the garden for many years to come.”
Colleen Corkhill, Boreham Primary School Head teacher said: “We are most grateful to Essex & Suffolk Water’s volunteers for their hard work creating the wildlife garden. The space has been totally transformed and I’m sure it will be enjoyed by everyone at Boreham Primary School.”
Race for Business – June
Over 1,800 runners from 187 Essex businesses took part in the 11th Race for Business on Wednesday 10 June, including 36 runners from Essex & Suffolk Water, with friends and family joining too. So far the race has risen over £315,000 for various charities and we as a company have been involved in it for 9 years, contributing £750 in entry fees alone this year. The race was designed to raise money for local charities by encouraging local businesses to put in teams of runners, with this years money going to Farleigh Hospice.
WaterAid Trail 100 – June
On Saturday the 6th June 2009, 29 people from Essex descended upon Snowdonia in Wales to take part in the WaterAid Trail 100 Challenge. This involved WaterAid attempting to put a team of walkers on the top of the top 100 most popular mountains in the British Isles between midday and 2pm.
The glorious sunshine of the previous weekend had sadly disappeared and monsoon like conditions awaited the teams as they embarked on the challenge on the Saturday morning. Despite this each of 
the 4 teams
involved bravely battled the rain, cold temperatures, gale force winds and limited visibility to achieve their target. The Mountains conquered were; Snowdon, Tryfan, Glyder Fach and Moel Siabod. Everyone safely made it back to the campsite for a well earned (cold) shower and a pint (or 2).
Although the conditions were atrocious, everyone kept their spirits up and had a thoroughly enjoyable (but wet) weekend, raising in excess of £2,200 for WaterAid and completing 85.5 hours under the Just An hour scheme.
Ragwort clearing at/on the Broads – July
The Broads Authority and Essex & Suffolk Water’s conservation team joined together at Lound Lakes to remove Ragwort weed from the surrounding area. A team of 12 employees took on the task, pulling Ragwort which has to be removed from the fields as it is dangerous to grazing animals, causing liver failure and ultimately death. Although the fields in the country wildlife site aren’t grazed, they are cut for hay, which local farmers use, ultimately being beneficial to the biodiversity of plants and animals. This crucial procedure took a total of 85.5 hours to complete.
New water supply for Downhall school – July
In July, a seven person strong team of employees set out on the requested task of fitting a new water supply for Downhall School, Rayleigh, with the company also supplying a free water butt for the children’s use.
As part of the team’s Environmental teaching, an unused area of the school grounds was identified as ideal for an "allotment style" growing area for the children to use in learning through planting and producing vegetables and flowers.
An important part of the scheme was the importance of water in the process and there was no convenient supply in the immediate area. Our team ran a water supply to the garden area from the existing school domestic supply by digging and trenching the 25mm pipe to a new standpipe tap adjacent to the growing area, completing 57 hours of community work in total.
Cycling for a wheely good cause – August
Since the ‘Just an hour’ scheme was launched in 2003, Essex & Suffolk Water employees have spent over eleven thousand hours working on local community projects and improving the environment. In this instance, pedal power was used to raise hundreds of pounds to help in the fight against cancer. More than 50 of our employees took part in a sponsored 50km cycle from Abberton Reservoir, near Colchester to Hanningfield Reservoir, close to Chelmsford, contributing 273 hours to the Just An Hour scheme. A grand total of £1,220 was raised for Cancer Research UK, the world's leading charity dedicated to beating cancer through research and whose groundbreaking work has saved millions of lives. Jenny Abel from Essex & Suffolk Water, who took part in the event, said: “Cancer is 
a
disease that touches so many lives so we were thrilled to be able to raise this amount of money to help such an important cause. We all had an excellent time on the bike ride; it was great to know that our efforts were in aid of a very worthwhile charity.”
Louise Cook, Area Volunteer Manager for Cancer Research UK, said: “We are extremely grateful to everyone at Essex & Suffolk Water for supporting Cancer Research UK. To raise £1,220 is a fantastic achievement and I would like to say thank you to everyone who took part in the bike ride.”
Samaritan’s Purse shoebox appeal– September
An ongoing project that a group of our employees took part in during September was Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child, the worlds largest children's Christmas project devoted to spreading love, joy and smiles to children in parts of the world who really need them.
Numerous boxes were individually packed with hygiene items and goodies for leisure, differing with the age of each child. Friends and family of employees also took part, contributing knitted hats, toys and alike throughout the year, before the boxes were finally wrapped up for Christmas.
Funds for the items were raised through casual days and a bake & book sale, along with kind donations throughout the year. In the UK alone last year, over 1.2 million shoeboxes were sent by the charity. This year we have managed to contribute around 100 boxes to this worthy cause and have put in over 30 hours to make it happen.
Harvest for the Hungry 2009 – October
Enthusiastic employees managed to collect a life changing 894 boxes of food supplies as part of the Harvest for the Hungry campaign 2009. The boxes which had been carefully prepared by schools across Essex, were collected by our volunteers who covered a morning, afternoon or a whole day as part of the Just an hour scheme, contributing 77 hours of help in total.
This important contribution helped the humanitarian campaign to reach a grand total of 4635 boxes collected across the county, providing an essential lifeline to villages and communities scattered across Eastern Europe.
Harvest for the Hungry coordinator, Reverend Roger Stark said;"We are very grateful to all the staff at Essex & Suffolk Water who have volunteered to collect Harvest for the Hungry boxes from around the Essex schools this year… We couldn't achieve so much without your valuable support.”
Sensory garden at St Clere’s school – October
A team of 8 employees joined together with school helpers to recreate the garden at St Clere’s, a school which has special arrangements in place to support the needs of visually and hearing impaired pupils. It was decided that a sensory garden area was ideal for the pupils, incorporating all the elements of the human senses such as touch, taste and smell by introducing an assortment of plants and materials.
A practical garden was also introduced in order to plant vegetables, with an area for chickens as an incentive for pupils with learning difficulties.
Alex Hastie, production engineer, who led the project said: “The team, together with some family members and helpers from the school worked really hard throughout the day to produce the finished garden. Everybody had a real sense of achievement, and are really proud to have built something that will give pleasure to others for some time to come." The team completed a total of 60 hours for the school under the Just an hour scheme.
Children in Need 2009 – November
In one of our most successful fundraising campaigns this year, colleagues from Essex & Suffolk helped to raise a combined total of over £6,200 for Children in Need, adding over 150 hours to our community work. As part of the Just An hour scheme, fifty colleagues, usually based at Hanningfield Water treatment works, were in Chelmsford high street for the day with Pudsey and Essex & Suffolk water’s own superheroes – ‘the H20 gang’ - to draw in the crowds. Two rowing machines were also based here, with employees taking it in turns to complete a 30 minute slot to see how far they could row. A total of 157 miles was accomplished, equivalent to that of the distance between Chelmsford and Rouen in France.
In Suffolk areas, two brave colleagues decided to shave off both their moustache and beard in aid of Children In Need, whilst even more money was raised through a highly successful raffle at the St Mary’s office.