One of the things we’re really proud of at CBO is our Community / Charity Days initiative, where we give each of our team up to five days a year to put towards supporting a charity or community programme of their choice. We’re always amazed by the varied and valuable things our team gets involved in, and the brilliant and inspiring work of their chosen organisations.

A snapshot of past charity / community initiatives includes:

• Supporting the Guernsey Round Table organise the Swimarathon and Harbour Carnival
• Participating as a Director for the Guernsey Community Foundation
• Running sessions on Project Management for Guernsey secondary schools as part of their Careers programme
• Acting as Chair for a local Guernsey Scout Group
• Training to become a Samaritan
• Travelling to Uganda to visit the work being done for an international charity helping to overcome poverty through savings and loans projects

This time out we’re going to focus in on one of our team, David Palzeaird, who recently returned from supporting the Alderney Wildlife Trust and their annual Woodland week.

‘CBO contributed to woodland week with old-fashioned manual labour and also some craftmanship!  After a hearty breakfast, the first few hours were spent saving saplings that were planted in previous years from some thick brambles and weeds and giving them the room to grow. The work here should allow the saplings enough space to grow and thrive, eventually thickening the woodland in this area of headland,’ said David.

‘In the afternoon it started to rain and got darker, so we retreated back to a farm workshop to try our hand at making some rugged benches from some of the non-native trees felled that year. This involved stripping the bark off trunks and chiselling out circular holes for smaller trunks to act as legs. These benches will live on various viewpoints around the island until they inevitably become habitats for insects and need replacing. Less permanent than concrete benches, but environmentally friendly. Weary feet and backs were quickly forgotten thanks to the traditional pint of ale in ‘The Divers Inn’, which always goes down too easy!’

Great work David and the team at Alderney Wildlife Trust!

If you’d like to know more about CBO Projects and our Charity / Community leave initiative, then please get in contact via coffee@cboprojects.com