Digging deep to deliver gardening delight

Green-fingered employees from Warwickshire-based express deliverer TNT rolled up their sleeves with some 'hired muscle' from Nuneaton Rugby Club to get stuck into a school project with a difference.

The marketing team from TNT's head office in Holly Lane, Atherstone, joined pupils and staff at Oakwood Senior School, Morris Drive, Nuneaton as part of a groundbreaking pilot scheme.

The new initiative being championed by TNT and children's charity Wooden Spoon - called 'Doing is Believing' - meant the team got the opportunity to take a real hands-on approach and build a vegetable garden that the pupils will plant and maintain themselves.

Nuneaton RFC players Huw Thomas, Richard Johnson, Scott Wright and head coach Mike Ugama scrummed down to lend their muscle to the project and supported the green team by lifting railway sleepers into place to create the three vegetable beds. 

Mike explained: "We jumped at the chance to lend a hand to our main club sponsor, TNT, in this worthwhile venture. Everyone has had a fantastic day helping out."

RoseMarie Scott, Head Teacher at Oakwood School said: "The work the TNT team did has started us on our new Land Studies Course which will benefit all our students for many years to come. It was an absolute pleasure working alongside the group and the hard work and dedication of the team was matched only by their friendliness and helpfulness."

TNT Express Services is the biggest single contributor to the Wooden Spoon, raising over £2.5 million in cash donations in the past eleven years. In turn, the Wooden Spoon provides funding for children's projects across the UK to support youngsters who are disadvantaged physically, mentally or socially. 

More than 2,000 TNT employees have so far participated in a series of visits to see how the funds they help generate are used to benefit tens of thousands of disabled and disadvantaged youngsters around the UK.

Entitled 'Seeing is Believing' the programme is designed to help further motivate them and build even stronger ties between TNT and Wooden Spoon. The 'Doing is Believing' pilot was such a huge success that the marketing team is looking at how it could be rolled out country-wide.

Steve Doig, Marketing Director at TNT Express UK added: "Spending the day with the staff and youngsters at Oakwood School was superb. The project gave us the opportunity to build the vegetable garden for the pupils to use as part of their curriculum work as well as spend the day working as a team."

Regional Chairman of the Wooden Spoon Phil Pemble said: "'Doing is Believing' is a fantastic initiative that motivated everybody taking part, but of course the real winners are the children who rely on the endeavours and generosity of the TNT Express Services workforce."