Over 100 Jaguar Land Rover undergraduates from across the UK recently attended a conference to mark the end of their placements. During the event, undergraduates worked in teams and built bikes as a team building exercise. The bikes were safety checked by professionals at the end of the session and have been donated to various charities local to Jaguar Land Rover sites.
Undergraduates at Halewood Operations donated five stylish BMX bikes to children who are supported by Butterflies, a project which helps children and others affected by bereavement or other forms of loss such as divorce and family separation. Children from across Merseyside attend group counselling and an emotional youth club at their Prescott and Halewood premises.
Tracy Allen-Lea, Head of Clinical Services at local charity Listening Ear which runs the Butterflies service said, “Jaguar Land Rover have been so supportive of our children and young people’s services over recent years. We feel so lucky to have been chosen to receive the bikes and to enable local children to benefit, it’s fantastic! The children who come for support to Listening Ear are often going through some really difficult times and I know that this will make a huge difference to those chosen. They were so happy and excited and for them to know that Jaguar Land Rover and its workforce had thought about them too is really amazing. Thank you for making unique bikes for such special and unique children.”
The bikes were presented to the children by Paula Keegan from Learning and Development who added, “All our undergraduates worked really hard building these bikes and are very proud they’re going to special young people in our local community.”
The children said -
‘I love the green and the skulls on the bike and can’t wait to have a ride. It’s the best bike ever!!”
“Thank you to everyone at Jaguar Land Rover, I can’t wait to show my mates in school my new bike made specially for me”
“I love this bike, you’ve made me so happy! You have made it with really good brakes!”
“I’m not good at doing very much but I’m good at riding a bike!”
“I can’t believe I’m getting a bike and that I can keep it, thank you”