Vauxhall Motors employees cast aside business wear for casuals and raised money for a new Braille machine.

Vauxhall Motors employees cast aside business wear for casuals and raised money for a new Braille machine and a specialist Braille teaching course for staff at a local special needs school.

The employees from Vauxhall’s head office and its Toddington Road Warehouse Operations centre organised two bucket collections for Weatherfield Academy. The school is home to 128 students, all who find mainstream schooling a challenge, teaching children with a variety of special needs and disabilities.

Vauxhall’s donation will now help their visually impaired students, notably Harrison, who is using a decades-old Braille machine. The money raised will also go towards sending two of the teachers on a specialist Braille course. The school, which was threatened with closure in recent years, now thrives with an on-site farm and allotments.

Joe Selmes, headteacher said, “Stacey Hawtin and Charlotte Fisher, two teachers, work closely with Harrison and our other visually impaired [VI] pupils. The majority of the funding raised by Vauxhall Motors will be used to acquire resources for the visually impaired pupils at our school.  We are delighted with their generosity, it has made a real difference.”

Vauxhall Motors hold a monthly ‘Casual Friday’ to fundraise for a different charity in line with their Corporate Social Responsibility theme of ‘Supporting Britain’s Youth’. In recent months, Vauxhall has also donated to a host of other local children’s charities including Families United Network and the Neonatal Ward at Luton and Dunstable Hospital.

Chloe Burrowes, Internal Communications Assistant at Vauxhall said, “Vauxhall feels really passionately about helping the community and particularly our youth. One of our employees told me about the opportunities his son had at Weatherfield and how his confidence had grown considerably while he was studying there. 

I found the school an amazing place and a really worthwhile cause for our collection. It is great to know that employees donations are being put to good use to help the visually impaired of Weatherfield School.”

The school also benefited from the donation of over 300 books which employees donated. These books will sit in the school’s library which is run by Liz Millett. Liz was School Librarian of the Year in 2014, awarded by the School Library Association (SLA).