Vauxhall Raises Funds, Books for Weatherfield Academy
Vauxhall employees last month organized two bucket collections for Weatherfield Academy in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England, helping raise enough funds to purchase a new Braille machine and specialist Braille teaching course for the academy’s staff. The employees of the automaker’s head office and Toddington Road Warehouse Operations Center specifically wanted to help a student, Harrison, who is blind and had been forced to use an archaic Braille machine to read.
“Vauxhall feels really passionately about helping the community and particularly our youth. One of our employees told me about the opportunities his son had at Weatherfield and how his confidence had grown considerably while he was studying there,” said Chloe Burrowes, Internal Communications Assistant at Vauxhall. “I found the school an amazing place and a really worthwhile cause for our collection. It is great to know that employees’ donations are being put to good use to help the visually impaired of Weatherfield School.”
The Weatherfield Academy is home to 128 special needs students, including Harrison. After having faced down the possibility of closure in past years, Weatherfield now features a flourishing on-site farm and several allotments that help it maintain.
Vauxhall’s employees donated enough funds to cover the new Braille machine for Harrison, as well as the money necessary to send two teachers to a course where they will better learn how to work with visually impaired students.
2“Stacey Hawtin and Charlotte Fisher, two teachers, work closely with Harrison and our other visually impaired pupils,” said Joe Selmes, head teacher at Weatherfield. “The majority of the funding raised by Vauxhall Motors will be used to acquire resources for the visually impaired pupils at our school. We are delighted with their generosity, [which] has made a real difference.”
Vauxhall employees also donated more than 300 books that will fill the school’s library, overseen by the School Library Association’s 2014 School Librarian of the Year, Liz Millett.
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