Media & Events

The Bigger Spring Clean

On Wednesday 27 and Friday 29 February, the College held ‘The Big Spring Clean’, which placed student volunteers in the local community and gave them the opportunity to spruce up the neighbourhood. Having attracted much praise with its pilot last year, this year’s Big Spring Clean was bigger and better than before.

This year, an army of eighty volunteers descended upon the local area, tidying the grounds of Englefield Green Youth Centre, clearing and trimming plants at Little Echoes Nursery, cleaning up Manor Farm Day Centre, litter picking and recycling rubbish in Egham and Englefield Green, and planting shrubs in community flower beds.

In addition to the volunteering team’s efforts in the local area, some Students’ Union societies have also taken part in the Big Spring Clean. Sports clubs weeded the riverbank at Heathrow Special Needs Farm and prepared the flowerbeds of St Peters Hospital for Spring. The Men’s Rugby Club also helped tidy up Lynwood Residential Home in Sunninghill. Overall, the volunteers spent a combined 150 hours in the local community, collecting eighteen bags of rubbish, most of which were recycled.

Phil Simcock, Community Action Volunteer Coordinator for the College says, “This aspect of the volunteering programme is great for actively seeing students enthusiastically volunteer to serve the area in which they live. All the projects are requests from local community organisations which require a team of volunteers to meet a genuine need.”

The Big Spring Clean 2008 would not have been possible without the help of its community partners. Enterprise-Rent-A-Car not only financially sponsored the initiative, but also provided a team of staff assisting with a project to clean the minibus fleet at Age Concern Runnymede in Chertsey.

Runnymede Borough Council were also key partners in the initiative, providing materials and resources such as litter pickers, gloves and black bags.