Volunteers from Weston JobCentre have been rolling up their sleeves to help get Weston Hospicecare’s garden shipshape for summer today (Tuesday).
The seven-strong group of Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) workers are spending the day carrying out a series of jobs in the charity’s Jackson-Barstow House garden.
The group have been sweeping, weeding, painting benches and more as part of a hospice support programme being run by JobCentres around the country.
The initiative is part of a national DWP scheme called 31 Days In May, during which each JobCentre is trying to raise money in support of its local hospice.
Weston’s JobCentre will be doing so through a series of activities including a dress down day and a baking competition, but manager Gillie Jackson said her team had been keen to get even more involved.
She said: “We have various activities planned in the centre, but we wanted to do more, so thought we would ask if we could get out and get involved at the hospice too.
“We felt we just wanted to come and help.”
The DWP group is the second volunteer team to lend a hand in the garden at the hospice’s headquarters in Uphill in the space of a month, after a team from NatWest did similar in April.
And those who would like to see for themselves how their work has helped enhance the hospice garden are invited to visit during an open garden event on Sunday (May 20). The event will run from 2-4pm. Entry is free, and refreshments will be available.