Celebration brings community together

For the past 11 years, employees from the site have taken a day out of their busy work schedules to carry out much-needed voluntary work across the local area. So far, the initiative has given a helping hand to 48 different charities, schools community or conservation groups.

Day of Caring 2016 saw about 80 employees take part in five different projects at several locations - a record number for Fawley in one year. These locations were; St John’s Church, Hythe, Marwell Zoo, St Anne’s Neighbourhood Centre, Butts Ash, Twiggs Lane Pre-school, Marchwood, and Minstead Training Trust, in the New Forest.

The Day of Caring celebration event {19/01/2017} proved a perfect opportunity for volunteers, project beneficiaries and local councillors to look back on a record-breaking year at Fawley. About 60 people attended the presentation and lunch, which gave those present the chance to reflect on the Day of Caring projects which were completed last year. It was also the perfect way to thank all those who volunteered their time to carry out vital community work.

The celebration event began with an informal presentation about the 2016 projects, followed by a lunch where the guests were able to mingle with each other and hear first-hand how the voluntary work carried out over a period of three weeks in October had made a difference.

Bev Spanswick is the Volunteer Co-ordinator at Minstead Training Trust, which supports adults with learning disabilities to learn new skills and help them to lead independent lives. She told the audience: “To have all these wonderful volunteers come to Minstead and see them work so hard was an absolute joy. Like many others have said today, we simply could not have done this work by ourselves. We will forever be grateful.”

Goff Beck, Chairman of NFDC, said: “On behalf of New Forest District Council, I commend ExxonMobil at Fawley on taking the initiative to support local organisations and communities in the manner that we heard today.”

Jon Wetmore, Fawley Refinery Manager, said Day of Caring was an important part of the calendar and would remain so. He added: “Day of Caring is a great way to make a positive difference to the community and to provide some much-needed help to some very worthwhile causes.”

This year’s Day of Caring projects will once again take place in October. If you think you know of a worthy cause which could benefit from some help, email linda.morris@exxonmobil.com.

Background to 2016 projects:

• The first set of volunteers went to St John’s Church, Hythe, where they gave the churchyard a good spruce up, relaid the gravel path and sanded and oiled the oak double doors at the entrance to the church.
• The next group travelled to Marwell Zoo where 4,500 presents awaited wrapping in time for the charity’s Christmas grotto.
• Third on the list for assistance was St Anne’s Neighbourhood Centre, in Warrys Close, Butts Ash, near Hythe, where several rooms were given a much-needed lick of paint.
• The fourth project was at Twiggs Lane Pre-School, in Marchwood. Here, 15 volunteers spent the day putting up a new trellis fence, painting two storage sheds, jet-washing the playground floor and fixing a new coat rail to the classroom wall.
• A 60ft shrub bed, in desperate need of weeding, awaited volunteers at Minstead Training Trust, in the New Forest. As well as stripping the bed back to its soil base, the ExxonMobil helpers also carried out other garden maintenance.

Notes for editors:

• ExxonMobil at Fawley is the collective name given to Esso Petroleum Company Limited and ExxonMobil Chemical Limited which are part of Exxon Mobil Corporation.
• The Fawley refinery is the largest in the UK. Approximately one in six cars in the UK operates on fuel produced at Fawley.
• Exxon Mobil Corporation is the world’s leading publicly-traded petroleum and natural gas company.
• Approximately 75,000 employees work for ExxonMobil across six continents with more than 1,000 employees working at Fawley.
• Over the past six years, ExxonMobil has contributed in excess of £1m in community support.