A TEAM of volunteers from Stansted Airport grabbed their paint brushes to spruce up the yard at Redwings Horse Sanctuary in Harlow on Wednesday (Sept 4).

The team included staff from various departments across the airport including security, engineering, operations, HR and customer relations.

Airport Project Manager, Sarah Coote, who was part of the volunteering team, said:

“We had a great day helping out a local charity that we are all passionate about, but it was also brilliant being able to spend time with colleagues away from the office. We painted fences and showed off our DIY skills by putting broken ones back together. I think it’s really important that we give something back to the community, and what better way to do that than getting out and about, representing the airport and helping those who need our support.”

Lauren Cates, Volunteer Coordinator, Redwings Horse Sanctuary, said:

“Everyone at Redwings Horse Sanctuary would like to thank the Stansted team for taking time out to come and help us paint and repair the fence. We rely heavily on the help of volunteers and the team from the airport were brilliant and we look forward to welcoming them back soon.”

In the last year 350 airport employees have given over 7000 hours of their time to volunteer in the local community. The airport encourages its staff to offer their skills on a voluntary basis to not only help strengthen ties with the areas in which colleagues live and work, but to also support employee wellbeing and engagement.

Marcella M’Rabety, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at London Stansted, said: “Our staff love being able to make a real difference and contribute their time, experience and knowledge to help valuable causes and projects. We fully support our staff in giving both work time and their own time to local projects, and reward and celebrate their support via our own recognition schemes. We welcome requests from a whole range of projects and will always do our best to find teams to support activity if it takes place in communities close by or linked to the airport.”

Projects, organisations, charities and schools are welcome to request assistance from the London Stansted Airport community team. Details should be sent to [email protected] for the team to assess what help can be offered, depending on project and operational availability of staff.