September marks ten years since the passing of our dear colleague, Graham Begley. After Graham’s death, his friends and team-mates in the Stamping Group, created a special memorial garden on site in his honour, which they have all taken great care in looking after.
However, inspired by Halewood’s Grand Design’s project, which is on a DIY mission to give our factory an uplifting makeover, they decided to give the garden some extra TLC and a summer spruce.
Over the last few weeks, they have been busy making repairs to the fence, tidying up the shrubbery and cleaning the block paving- so it’s now sparkling in the sunshine.
David Hurst, one of Graham’s former teammates who has worked on the project, said: “We all like to come out here as it’s nice and quiet so it’s the perfect place to sit and reflect. Whenever we are in the garden, we start laughing as Graham was so full of life which is why it was so important to us that we did the improvements as this green space is a lasting legacy to him.”
Phil Douglas, Kaizen co-ordinator, added: “Over the last few years, the garden has started to look a bit unkept as people need to be released off the line to tidy it.
“So, when we heard about the DIY project, we decided to make this a priority area and have got a team of volunteers together and a plan in place so we can keep on top of it.
“Graham was a really popular friend and colleague so we knew we wouldn’t be short of volunteers, as so many people liked him. The garden is looking really lovely and all we need now is to add some compost and bedding plants to finish it.”
A special thank you to all the volunteers working on the Graham Begley memorial garden, this includes: Greg Tunstall, Phil Douglas, John Bellis, Tim Parker, Steve Foulkes and our colleagues from Leadec.
“We all like to come out here as it’s nice and quiet so it’s the perfect place to sit and reflect. Whenever we are in the garden, we start laughing as Graham was so full of life which is why it was so important to us that we did the improvements as this green space is a lasting legacy to him.”