As part of the Bank’s Day to Make a Difference initiative, staff from Lloyds’ PhoneBank team recently spent a day working with the Manx Wildlife Trust at their Cooildarry Nature Reserve. The Day to Make a Difference initiative, which operates across the Lloyds Banking Group, encourages all staff to spend one day per year carrying out voluntary work in their local community.
Cooildarry is the Manx Wildlife Trust’s largest woodland reserve and forms the upper part of Glen Wyllin, just south of Kirk Michael village. Earlier this year, the reserve suffered considerable storm damage with up to 200 trees being lost and whilst the Trust’s regular volunteers, or Mid-week Muckers, as they’re more usually known, have worked hard to clear the debris there was still plenty more to be done. Tricia Sayle, Manx Wildlife Trust’s Reserves Officer, was therefore delighted to take up Lloyds’ offer of help.
Working with Tricia, the Trust’s Fundraising and Wildlife Advocacy Officer, Anne Marie Kilgallon and Mid-week Muckers, Alan Jones, Alison Skyner and Godfrey Pitts, the team from Lloyds cleared a considerable amount of tree debris and vegetation from around the ponds which are located in an area of the reserve known as the Pleasure Gardens. They also carried out repairs to one of the paths and put in some new boundary markers.
As well as providing the volunteers for the day, the Bank also very kindly covered the cost of hiring a tree surgeon to prepare the site and also paid for all the materials used.
Commenting on the day’s activities, Jonathan Potts, PhoneBank Senior Manager at Lloyds, said, “We’ve all had a great time working at Cooildarry. Everyone really pulled together to get the work completed and felt that their Day to Make a Difference really did make a difference to the Manx Wildlife Trust.”
The Manx Wildlife Trust would like to thank Lloyds for both their practical and financial support and is looking forward to working with the Bank on further community projects in the future.
Photo - volunteers from Lloyds’ PhoneBank team.
