Zurich Insurance Does 'Ground Force' at BDRC
Top Executives from Zurich hung up their suits and got out their gardening gear yesterday to head on down to the Birmingham Disability Resource Centre to create a new sensory garden.
The Birmingham Disability Resource Centre (BDRC), which is based in Bierton Road, Yardley challenged Zurich to the one-day ‘Ground Force’ style makeover in order to create a new space for the 3,000 disabled people they support each year.
Louise Simmons, BDRC Chief Executive and Zurich Challenger explained ‘We had a very tired looking courtyard area which was crying out for a Ground-Force style make-over. We asked Zurich for their help to remove the weeds and dead plants, replace the cracked and faded plant pots, replace the old unsightly garden furniture and create a new sensory garden for our service users’.
Zurich responded by getting their Top Executives together to undertake the team challenge and spent the day at BDRC tidying up the sight, replacing missing slabs, repainting the courtyard walls, bringing in new tactile and scented plants and hanging baskets, erecting bird feeders to encourage wildlife and buying new garden furniture.
Jan Gardner from Zurich, who co-ordinated the team challenge said
‘We were delighted to have the opportunity to assist BDRC and we hope that the restyled courtyard will provide many years of pleasure and fun to users of the facility. The reward for completing the challenge is the knowledge that the courtyard will have a practical function as well as being a comfortable environment in which to relax.’
Louise Simmons stated ‘The team worked really hard on the sensory garden and even found time to install an obligatory Charlie Dimmock style water feature ! The garden is better than we could have ever hoped for and we are so grateful to Zurich for their support’.
Louise Simmons went on to state ‘The sensory garden will be a fantastic place for our staff, volunteers and the service users we support to sit and enjoy. It will also enable us to organise new activities such as BBQs for our disabled youth club members. As a number of our service users have expressed an interest in gardening, we would also be able to establish a gardening club to maintain the sensory garden in the future and build on the work undertaken as part of the challenge.’
