Generous donation for playscheme

08.04.2008

A playscheme based at Caerphilly Leisure Centre has received a generous donation by a local aircraft engineering company, which holds a world-class record in safety.

At the beginning of April, GE Aviation, based in Nantgarw, awarded the centre with £500 to be spent on new equipment. The money was a thank you to last summer’s playscheme participants for taking part in a safety awareness workshop organised by the company.

The safety awareness session, which took place at the leisure centre, saw the children and GE Aviation staff participate in games and activities, based on health and safety while at play. Many of the children also entered a hand safety ‘design a poster’ competition, where they artfully portrayed the importance of hands in everyday life. The winning posters were displayed in the GE Aviation factory at Nantgarw.

Last week, Mark Wyatt, Environmental, Health and Safety Maintenance Leader, visited the playscheme to hand over the cheque on behalf of GE Aviation.

He said, “Last year, a Health and Safety competition was run by our headquarters in Cincinnati, where GE Aviation sites competed against each other for a monetary prize. Employees were involved in identifying potential dangerous practices, and the company then designed out the risk. As this was a great exercise we then contacted Mr Poyner, Manager of Caerphilly Leisure Centre, to ask him if we could extend the initiative to his playscheme to raise awareness amongst local children of the importance of playing safely. When we won the competition our Managing Director Mr Alan Kelly wanted to show his appreciation to the playscheme, so he donated some of our prize money for new equipment.”