Ogmore Centre Trust has a facelift thanks to Barclays Bank
Ogmore Centre Trust’s main performance hall has recently undergone a face lift thanks to the continued support of Barclays Bank and their ‘Make a Difference’ scheme.
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For the second consecutive year, Barclays staff have given up their own time to paint at Ogmore Centre Trust, the education and outdoor activity centre based at Ogmore by Sea.
Mike Jones who led the team of willing volunteers said ‘Make a difference day is a great way to get involved in the local community. We had plenty of volunteers ready to get stuck in to the task set at Ogmore Centre Trust. All our staff involved felt a fantastic sense of achievement, knowing that thousands of children will benefit from this work.’.
The performance hall at Ogmore hosts not only artistic presentations as a result of their own courses, but also concerts given by nine Welsh Youth County Orchestras who use the Centre as their residential training facility.
Last year, Ogmore also benefited with a cash injection from Barclays Bank, totalling £25,000, covering a period of three years. These monies are to assist young people from socially deprived areas, who wish to attend geography and environmental courses at the Centre. In 2004, 113 young people benefited from these funds. It is estimated a further 240 children will benefit in 2005, following the introduction of brand new geography and environmental courses for both primary and secondary education.
Organised by national charity CSV and sponsored by Barclays, the “Make a Difference” campaign aims to encourage people everywhere to think about how they can support their communities and make a difference to the lives of local people by volunteering a few hours of their time.
Through their world class support schemes, Barclays actively encourages employees to volunteer their time and talents, giving grants and time off work, in addition to supporting flagship projects such as Make a Difference Day and Barclays Site Savers. In 2003, 7,500 Barclays employees volunteered for Make a Difference Day and over 22,500 hours of bank time were given to make a difference.
New courses in 2004 included:
Primary Geography
Environmental Art
Environmental Science – Stephen Lloyd a teacher from Llanelli, whilst teaching children on this course commented ‘It is a really valuable experience for the pupils, with practical activities and opportunities for them to get their hands dirty'.