Today (Thursday 13^th December) a team of volunteers from Clydesdale Bank will travel to the village of Neilston in East Renfrewshire to lend a helping hand.

Scottish Business in the Community (SBC) through its innovative Team Challenge programme which helps businesses get actively involved in their local communities has matched a group of volunteers from Clydesdale Bank with Neilston Primary School to undertake a Team Challenge.

The volunteers will be contributing to the improvement of the school grounds, making the area a better place in which the children can play and learn as well as creating a valuable space for the larger community to enjoy. On their list of tasks will be creating a pebble mosaic in the wildlife and sensory garden, building compost bins, maintaining the community orchard and creating a giant octopus weaving willow.

James Tindell, Programme Manager at SBC said: “Companies are increasingly seeing the benefit that community volunteering delivers, not just to the local communities they serve and from which they recruit, but also to the volunteers themselves. SBC is the logical route for businesses to get actively involved with their local communities and this is just one example of how SBC can broker relationships between the voluntary and private sector to make this happen."

Meanwhile a second group of Clydesdale Bank volunteers will be undertaking another challenge today as part of The Glasgow Children’s Orchard Project, an outreach project which aims to plant 1000 fruit trees across the city in locations where access to the trees can support education and health awareness.

The idea for the “Glasgow Children’s Orchard” came from the children’s garden project based in The Glasgow Botanic Gardens.  In 2005/06, 100 apple trees were planted in 40 sites, including nurseries, primaries, high schools, SEN schools, hospital grounds, community gardens, allotments, parks, and even in George Square… since then the ambitions have grown.

Thanks to the help of the volunteers and generous contributions, 60 more tress will be planted today, and children from three local primary schools will be helping to get the sapling trees settled into their new homes.