SentinelOne Team Volunteering Day

What A Difference A Day Makes!

The Meath is extremely fortunate to have picture perfect grounds and the beautiful old manor house. We are grateful for our stunning site and facilities, but they require a lot of maintenance. Ron Collins, Senior Maintenance Officer and his team members Tony and Rick have a busy schedule, tight budget, and an ever-growing jobs list.

The announcement of a summer team corporate volunteering day with leading cyber security company SentinelOne was music to our ears, but this volunteering day was made even more special due to a close personal connection. Peter Carfrae, brother to Adam who lives at Bradbury House got chatting to the team at Adam’s house and learned that finding time and resources to paint Adam’s room and other areas was proving difficult. Keen to help, Peter planned to give his brother’s room a Watford FC themed make over, but also got thinking about how he could extend his support for The Meath. His company SentinelOne had just launched a new global initiative called the S1 Foundation and helping charities was one of the ways in which the foundation aimed to support local communities. He explained “I contacted my colleague Ana and we set up a meeting with Helen and Lucy at The Meath. Ana could see how much this meant to me and The Meath and she was amazing in driving this idea forward and getting so many colleagues on board.”

Perfectly timed between heat waves and summer rain, we were fortunate enough to welcome fifteen staff from SentinelOne who, after hearing a little about the work of The Meath, split into different tasks groups painting in four of the houses and another group worked at clearing and tidying the grounds.

The day felt very special indeed, so many busy people were pleased to come and make a positive difference to the lives of the people we support. Special thanks must go to Peter who, knowing how incredibly supportive his colleagues are commented that he “wasn’t surprised by the incredible support they have shown for The Meath, but was delighted”.

All at The Meath were equally delighted, Ron Collins, Maintenance Officer explained “having fifteen people come in to kindly devote a day to painting or gardening is huge for us. We’ve had two living rooms, a dining room and a bedroom decorated, and the gardening team have done wonders. The residents will be really pleased, and the achievements made today equate to three weeks of work. That’s a huge saving of time and money that we are extremely grateful for. In addition to this the company generously funded cost of the materials used. We are extremely grateful; they were all friendly and very hard working!”

As well as enabling The Meath to make inroads on our maintenance jobs list, the day offered some other equally important gains, both for the charity and the team of volunteers. As Peter put it “For me, a big part of the day is for them to meet some of the residents, to see the sparkle they have and the difference just spending five minutes with an individual can make. We are often incredibly busy and have demanding jobs at SentinelOne, so I hope that meeting some of the amazing individuals at The Meath will inspire them to support more charities like The Meath.”

Helen Jackson, Head of Marketing at The Meath was delighted with the day and explained that “the group were genuinely interested in the lives of the people we support, and I made sure they understood just how much their support means to us all. It is just fantastic to have this support which helps hugely with our limited resources but also means so very much to the people we support on a personal level. Seeing the ladies at Jeffrey Court return home to their new look living room was wonderful and it meant a lot to us all that some of the group stayed on after painting to play football with Richard on the front lawn. The day was a great success all round and we are delighted that the team would like to return in the future. We are also very thankful to the team for having generously personally donated to a fundraiser for The Meath”

The team at SentinelOne really enjoyed seeing the positive impact that they made during the course of the day and Helen Ackers at SentinelOne commented that “Supporting The Meath seemed like an obvious choice for us, we have a strong family ethos as a company and the fact that one of our team is so involved with The Meath really meant that lots of people jumped at the chance to support in this way. We’ve had a great time working together but outside of our usual environment and focusing on helping a worthy cause.”

What a Difference a Care Home Makes

Peter also kindly shared a little insight into why The Meath is so important to, him and his family. “It is not an exaggeration to say that The Meath has changed not just my brother’s life but all his family too. It is so important to firstly know that Adam is safe and being cared for but on top of that, The Meath makes Adam happy and keeps him busy with a variety of activities. His carers at Bradbury House know Adam so well and it is so special to see the banter and conversations they have with him, they’re amazing.

The staff are the key to what makes The Meath such a good home for Adam. It is brilliant to have great facilities, nice buildings etc but it is about the people. At Bradbury House, the close relationship we have as a family with staff such as Sam, Carol, Josh, Dan and many others is really special, it means we can discuss anything with them, and it allows Adam to be himself. They know what he likes, when he is in a good or bad mood, how he speaks, likes to dress etc. They really know Adam and that is the best thing.”