Westgate Foundation CSR Event 2017

As we sit down to write this, we are still wondering who got more out of this CSR event; was it us or the staff and clients of Westgate?

Over a 3-day period starting on July 10^th, we grabbed our paint brushes and tools and headed to Westgate in Ballincollig, where we had been given an opportunity to volunteer.

We hoped to contribute to the upkeep of the day room, but not only did we give the room an uplift, our hard work lifted the spirits of both the employees and clients alike.  For those of you who don’t know about Westgate, here is a brief synopsis:

Westgate Foundation is a community based organisation providing an integrated range of services for older people including Day care, Community Catering, Sheltered Housing, Transport, Social and Active Retired Club, Social Work and Counselling.

The ethos is to provide accessible, welcoming and responsive services, programmes and support that enable people to enjoy optimum quality of life as they grow older.

People’s willingness to help was overwhelming; we were oversubscribed for volunteers.  Everyone’s reason for being there differed, for example one volunteer mentioned “I hated these jeans from the day I bought them, I can’t wait to get paint on them”.  But overall, we were all there as a team to contribute!

People who never held a paintbrush were now striving towards being Leonardo De Vinci, and while it wasn’t the Sistine Chapel, we feel we did a super job.  Not only did we bring a bucket full of paint but we brought warmth and colour to the room and to the charity.

We would like to thank Pat McDonnells for the paint supplies and equipment provided at a discount and also to the staff at Westgate for the lovely welcome and feedback we received below, which reiterated how we felt; energized, positive and optimistic.  We were highly inspired by the staff we met.

“This is work that we have needed to do for quite some time but internally just didn’t have the resources to get it done. It was so uplifting for everyone here to see a team of volunteers come in who were so efficient and friendly to work with and who accomplished such a well finished job. It’s very important for us here at Westgate Foundation to have a pleasing environment for our clients and also for our staff and the work that you have all done has greatly contributed to that.” CEO, Westgate Foundation.

Westgate Foundation employs a staff team of 60 people and also enjoys the support of many volunteers.  It is a registered charity and limited company and is funded through service income, fundraising and government grants.

Thank you to Eugene for organising such a successful 3-day event and well done to all the volunteers.  We can’t wait to engage in our next CSR event, as Aesop said: “no act of kindness no matter how small is ever wasted”.