Skip Navigation LinksHome > About Us > Corporate Social Investment > CSI Activities

CSI Activities

Barnett Waddingham Ground Force - June 2011

The Cheltenham SIPP Team took full advantage of the glorious sunshine on Friday to complete a voluntary day of hard labour outdoors, giving Ground Force a run for their money. The task was to construct several designated learning zones within a wildlife garden of an underfunded primary school in Gloucester attended mostly by children in the Social Care system.

Tim Saxton took on the role of Alan Titchmarsh, and Claire Routledge was a natural choice for Charlie Dimmock. The zones included stripping nettles from a pond area and replacing with new turf, constructing a fire pit and log seating circle, finishing off a bird hide, mounting several bird tables and nesting boxes, and starting a butterfly garden.

A raffle in the office a few days before managed to raise £140, which Barnett Waddingham fund matched for a grand total of £280 towards the turf and materials – and all the bird tables were made or donated by Cheltenham staff too.

When they saw how overgrown the entire garden was at the beginning of the day, the look on everyone’s faces clearly said “Tim, what the hell have you got us into?”, but after a few hours of hard work and a well needed pub break at midday, it all started falling nicely into place. A massive success and a brilliant team effort. Thank you to the team of 10 (Lisa Clifford, Louisa Collingwood, Alex Green, Stella Prince, Sharon Fletcher, Annette Hyde, Clare Lloyd-Williams and Lisa White) and a big thanks to all who donated too. 

BW Ground Force


Cheltenham actuarial 'DIY SOS' - June 2011

Members of the Cheltenham actuarial team liaised with the Gloucestershire based charity CCP (County Community Projects) to find a suitable project that they could support.  Briefly, CCP help disadvantaged individuals and families where they are unable to receive any further help from the normal avenues, more details can be found on their website. Thanks to Barnett Waddingham’s policy allowing staff to volunteer for one working day each year, the team got to work on the project which involved decorating a bedroom for a 7 year old girl, Chloe. 

They had 3 days to complete the project between 24 May and 26 May and it was just like DIY SOS: “we were responsible for everything from designing the bedroom, sourcing materials (such as paint, furniture, carpet and bed linen) to decorating.  It was a great experience enjoyed by all those involved, although we were all glad to return back to our desks for a rest!”

Chloe and her family were really pleased with the end result and passed on a huge thank you to all those involved.