East Midlands Airport staff give almost 4,000 hours of voluntary support to local communities
Staff at East Midlands Airport have given the equivalent of 475 days of volunteering time to support local community projects in 2024/5.
31% of all airport staff, including every manager, took up volunteering opportunities, totalling 3,798 hours of activities.
Volunteering in communities surrounding the airport is a key part of its efforts to be a good neighbour, along with maintaining dialogue with community representatives, attending local events, action to reduce noise and supporting local projects through a Community Fund. Voluntary activities include supporting young people in schools, local charities on committees and fundraising, and local sports clubs, uniformed services and school PTAs. Some of the voluntary work goes on supporting projects that have benefited from the airport’s Community Fund, with more than 100 projects sharing grants totalling £282,158 in 2024/5.
Volunteer sessions included:
· Transforming the school playground at Willington Primary School, Derbyshire, creating a giant a new sandpit, tyre pyramid, digging area, buried tunnel and sensory pathway
· Carrying out garden maintenance at Rainbows Hospice, Loughborough, including taking down and clearing away an old fence, re-painting existing gates, handrails and planter boxes
· Litter picking along the Airport Trail and A453 verges, clearing more than 100kg across a number of sessions (pictured)
· Helping to complete a new community garden in Normanton Park, Derby, whose Green Thyme Team had received an Eco-Garden grant of £9,975 from the EMA Community Fund. Jobs included cutting the lawns, clearing, weeding and edging the garden beds, painting benches and creating a large bug hotel (pictured)
· Helping out at Sailability sessions for disabled people at Swarkestone Sailing Club, which benefited from £2,000 towards a special hoist from the Community Fund and £10,000 towards solar panels from the airport’s Low Carbon Energy Fund
· Supporting young people and adult job seekers through careers talks and mock interviews at the on-site education centre Aerozone and Airport Academy.
East Midlands Airport’s Community Engagement Manager Colleen Hempson said: “We encourage everyone in our workforce to volunteer for two days a year, and we’re pleased to have met our targets of 100% of managers and 30% of all staff doing so in the last financial year.
“It reflects our commitment to being a good neighbour and as well as benefiting those communities and projects, our staff get a lot of satisfaction from helping out and an insight into the people and places surrounding the airport.”