Employees from Chester Race Company have successfully completed their ‘Project 1000’ for the second year running.

The initiative, involving a partnership with Chester Voluntary Action working in the community, donated more than 1,000 hours of Race Company staff resource and expertise to 10 charities in the local area.

The nominated charities are all based in and around Chester and ranged from children’s services, mental health support and a foodbank among others.

Over 125 employees gave up their time to support the charities who had a variety of challenges requiring support.

Chester’s charity coordinator Jeannie Chantler said: “We implemented a corporate social responsibility strategy in 2016 and this year, we were keen to progress and make improvements from learnings over the previous two years.

“The company thoroughly enjoyed assisting across a variety of areas and hope that the time given demonstrates our commitment to helping our local community and their charities.”

Jocelyn Horton from Save The Family said: “The employees who came to the Save the Family site as part of Project 1000 helped to create much needed footpaths in our kitchen garden.

“These footpaths are vital for protecting the quality of the soil to cultivate a wide range of vegetables and fruit all used by our resident families.

“We always look forward to working with staff from Chester and Bangor-on-Dee racecourses because they work hard and do every task to a really high standard – we couldn’t ask for better!”

Employees from Chester Racecourse working in the local community

Chester’s catering division, Horseradish, were deployed to assist at the West Cheshire Food Bank where they helped to organize and sort the many donations, before delivering to those in need.

Head of catering at Horseradish Angus Wilson said: “We are committed to supporting charities, particularly those aimed at helping the local community.

“As part of our promised commitment, we are thrilled to be in a position to have helped the food bank.”

Further afield, a hardy team of maintenance staff gave a center for the deaf in Northwich a much-needed facelift and help to build a ramp at the entrance.

Gill Reeder, executive operations for DSN – the charity which operates services for the deaf community across Cheshire – said: “This has really opened up the frontage and we’re thrilled to have been supported by Chester Race Company – their work has been tremendous.”

The commitment from Chester Race Company to dedicate a full day’s volunteering for each of its full-time employees, across 10 separate local charities has been a success and has not only benefited the charities but has had a positive impact on the volunteers too.

Many have been inspired to continue to volunteer their spare time with their allocated charities.

Head of HR and Project 1000 coordinator Mark Wilcockson: “The project has really engaged our workforce into supporting local charities, and as such many of our staff have now developed working relationships with those charities resulting in a further commitment of their personal time.

“The project has been both rewarding and fun for all involved, and our employees have gained a real sense of satisfaction through completing this programme.

“We aim to continue to support local charities and commit our time and resources to grow project 1000.”