Some of the Sovereign team recently took time away from their desks to volunteer for the day at an adventure playground in Bradford.
The Big Swing based in Eccleshill, has been an integral part of the community for nearly 20 years and is run by Play Bradford. The Play Bradford team are big believers in using adventure play as a tool to improve children’s wellbeing and overall development. As well as The Big Swing, the site includes a fort maze, zipline, football pitch, slime den and jumping tower. Each piece of their play equipment challenges the children and enables them to use their body and mind in different ways.
On the day, the Sovereign team split up into three groups to tackle different areas of the playground. The first group rolled their sleeves up to strip down and repaint two containers currently used as storage for equipment. The second group popped on their gloves to cut back and tidy up overgrown vegetation surrounding the playground’s ‘Mud Kitchen’, whilst the third group grabbed their garden loppers and tackled the ‘Willow Tunnel’, lopping down the overgrown willow which was then stripped of its’ leaves to be used for den building.
Emily, Marketing Co-ordinator at Sovereign, said: “It was a pleasure to volunteer at Play Bradford alongside my colleagues yesterday. Stripping and painting the containers was tough work but definitely worth it to see the final result! The Big Swing is such an important community resource, and it was an amazing experience to be able to help with the upkeep of the adventure playground. At the end of the day, a great sense of achievement and pride was felt by the whole team.”
Hamid, Operations Manager at Play Bradford, said: “We want to express our gratitude to Sovereign Health! The positive impact you’ve had on the play areas has opened up the nature area for children to explore once more and has brought back vibrancy to our previously dull containers. We sincerely hope that you’ll visit us again next year.”
Sovereign’s Community Programme has supported Play Bradford for a number of years, donating over £17,000 to the organisation since 2017. For more information about our Community Programme visit our website Community Programme | Sovereign Health Care