Garden group raise a glass to whisky staff
NEILSTON residents have been toasting kind-hearted staff from a whisky firm who helped get a charity’s gardens back into shape and ready for food production.
The initiative was organised by Matt Drennan, who is a volunteer trustee director with the Neilston Development Trust ( NDT) and works as a shift manager at Chivas Brothers’ Strathclyde distillery.
Despite some challenging weather, including rain and hail, the work colleagues got stuck in and, under the direction of NDT garden co-ordinator Douglas Mather, got the site back into tiptop shape.
Neilston resident Matt told the Barrhead News: “I had an initiative to get local pensioners to teach horticulture skills to another local charity – Include Me 2 Club, who provide services for people with additional support needs.
“Due to Covid, the NDT charity gardens were in a wee state of disrepair and in need of some hard focus to get the area back into a working condition, ready for the production and planting of herbs, fruit and vegetables in conjunction with the Include Me 2 Club members.
“As always with these things, you have a noble idea but one coupled with a long list of difficulties to overcome to realise your aims, so back in Glasgow at my work in the Chivas Brothers distillery, I perused my options and decided to put out a SOS call to ask for volunteers to help these two charities.”
Matt was overjoyed by the response he then received from the ‘C shift’ distillery team members, who all volunteered to visit Neilston on a cold and wet day and help him get the charitable initiative started.
“On behalf of the villagers of Neilston and the two charities involved, I would like to congratulate Chivas Brothers for allowing employees to volunteer their time to help get our community gardens reworked,” added Matt.
“To the members of C shift, we all salute your hard work, professionalism, community outreach and charitable spirit.”