The Lineup team (L to R): (back row) Dawn Briddon, Dan Merrett, Elliot Houchell, Kristian Allison, Marc Eymard. Angela Duffett, Sarah Humphreys, Dan Arnott, Matt Parkes, Susan Macdonald, Craig Nimmo, Mihail Minzari; (front row seated) Gianluca Cannizzo, Chris Spalding, Claire Mitchell
As a global company, Lineup recognizes the importance of local community, and we contribute to ours – widespread though they may be! – whenever we can. With a pause during Covid-19, Lineup employees went back out into our wider community with a bang this year, with a spring cleanup day in late May at Mudchute Farms for our London-based colleagues.
Mudchute Farms is a community charity in London that houses a working farm, stables, a children’s nursery, and educational activities on 32 acres of land. After its preservation from development in 1974, Mudchute Park & Farm became known as the “People’s Park”, and focuses on environmental preservation & education for locals (especially for young, elderly, and low-income groups). Though they do have a dedicated staff, much of Mudchute relies on volunteers to keep the charity mission, and we were happy to pull on our wellies and dive in!
We all know that spring cleanup is a task even for our own gardens, and we certainly had our work cut out for us at Mudchute. We had a long list of tasks for the day, including:
- fence repair
- hedge trimming
- coppicing trees
- planting bulbs
- painting fencing & nursery items
CEO Chris Spalding and Executive Assistant Sarah Humphreys gamely picked up paintbrushes and rollers to take care of the fencing and some children’s playhouses that needed a touchup. With great advice from children at the nursery – Chris is hopeful we have new team members now, with all their inquisitiveness and eagerness to help – the painting went quickly and has everything looking sharp now.
The rest of the team got to work on the overgrown gardens, clearing out weeds taller than them to make the area useable once again. Some before and after photos tell the tale of the progress we were able to make in just a day, and just how much was cleared away, collected in bin bags.
It was hard work, but for a good cause, Mihail Minzari contended: “Everyone said, ‘You’ll feel the work you’ve done tomorrow!’ and I felt it all over! But it was worth it.” It was a wonderfully successful & satisfying day that everyone enjoyed, and, though we only spent one day at Mudchute, Angela Duffett said, “It really was well worth doing. Everyone agreed how fantastic the area looked after, and were amazed by what a few hours work from us can do for someone else!”. Some of our team had also not met in person before due to Covid-19, and we found this day to be a great team-building exercise while serving our community.
We’re looking forward to another day out in the community soon, and want to give a big thank you to Mudchute for making this possible for us. Susan Macdonald said “Mudchute Farm desperately needs support and it was great we had the privilege to help in their endeavours to ensure the Farm remains a free resource, sustains animal care, and maintains the nursery that is a wonderful location for young children in London to thrive and learn. It was a fun and productive day out and highly recommend!”
If your organization is located in London and looking to do something similar, check out Mudchute’s information on their corporate cleanup days to get started.
