Volunteer gardeners at the Pioneering Care Centre continue to be overwhelmed by the generosity of local people and businesses who have helped to make the community garden thrive.

The community garden is accessible with a number of grey breeze block raised bed that were in need of a make-over. PPG Industries from Aycliffe Business Park came to the rescue. Not only did they donate the paint, the staff even gave up their free time to paint the raised beds for us!

PPG is the world’s leading paint, coatings and speciality materials producer and they provided a range of pastel colours to enhance the area and create a colourful yet calming environment for local people.

PPG Industries, as part of their global Colourful Communities project, have donated an astounding 10,000 gallons of paint and supported communities with 18,600 hours of volunteering. PPG describes the Colourful Communities project is a mix of four essential ingredients: a community need, a local partner, passionate PPG employees and PPG products.

Kevin Mitchell of PPG Industries said “Following a tour of the community garden I felt inspired to help out. Each of the beds had coloured signs, designed by people with learning disabilities, a practical way to help the tutors and gardeners.

We decided if the entire raised bed was painted a specific colour it would be easier to give directions and also make the garden more vibrant, especially in the winter months”.

Carol Gaskarth from PCP explained, “We were thrilled that a local company was able to support the community garden in such a practical way. They brought a team of staff who volunteered to paint the raised beds and in additional “Together 21”, a project supporting children with Down Syndrome, also helped out – although they did get in a bit of a mess – I’m sure their parents didn’t mind too much!

PPG Industries as a company is a real asset to Newton Aycliffe and the surrounding area and their ‘essential ingredients’ for community support is aligned with PCP’s values and principles. I hope we are able continue working together on even more projects to benefit the community in the future.”

For further information about PCP please contact us at the Pioneering Care Centre, Tel: 01325 321234 email: enquiries@pcp.uk.net website: www.pcp.uk.net or follow PCP on Twitter: @PioneeringCare and Facebook: @PCPandCentre