Tessella employees ready to get stuck in

Oxford, UK | 25 August 2009. Tessella were once again out in full force for their annual community day and this year Tessella employees volunteered to help the John Masefield Cheshire Home in Burcot, Oxfordshire.

Tessella were set the task of clearing a mound of nettles and rubble, clearing away an overgrown area near a stream and painting the dining room.

Martin Waugh, consultant at Tessella and organisor of the day said: “It was fantastic to see how everyone worked so hard.”

Martin Waugh added: “Not only were Tessella contributing to the community but it also proved to be a perfect team-building day with a difference.”

Gail Crowther, volunteer co-ordinator at John Masefield Cheshire Home, said: “We are thrilled with the work that Tessella did and are very impressed with their organisational skills – with such a professional job done in such a short time.”

Tessella would like to thank Homebase, Abingdon for help in supplying paint and tools and Chilton Waste for help in supplying the skips.

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About Tessella
For decades, Tessella has been successfully delivering IT and consulting services to world leaders in R&D, science and engineering. We enable our clients in life sciences, energy, the public sector, and consumer industries to achieve a wide range of objectives, including, forecasting floods, developing fusion power, enhancing military sensor capability, improving drug discovery and development efficiency, and reducing risk to health and the environment in the extraction and production of oil and gas. With offices in Europe and North America, global companies rely on Tessella for business critical assignments.

Further information is available at www.tessella.com

About John Masefield Cheshire Home
John Masefield House is a registered home for 22 severely disabled adults aged 30’s to early 60’s. There is also a day centre attached to the site which caters 3 days a week for disabled people living at home.

Media Contact
Tessella
Christina Tealdi | Marketing Communications & PR Executive
Phone: +44 (0) 1235 555511 | Mobile: + 44 (0) 779 9346453
christina.tealdi@tessella.com

Tessella and JANET UK stuck their oar in by taking part in the Dragon Boat Race 2009 organised by the The Rotary Club of Abingdon Vesper, to raise money for Cancer Research UK and the Rotary Club of Abingdon Vesper.

James Duckworth, business development at Tessella said:  “Tessella were extremely happy to have JANET on board and take part in this ancient Chinese tradition which is over 2,000 years old.”  Duckworth continued: “It was a great day out and a good team building experience.”

Tessella and JANET went overboard and managed to raise over £1,600.

Tessella staff took part in Swimathon 2009 held at the Hitchin Swimming Centre to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care.  Two teams from Tessella, plus a third team made up of Tessella staff and clients managed to raise over £1,200.  Each team, consisting of 4 people, swam 200 lengths (5km).

“It was great to raise so much money while having a great time in the process.”  said Matthew Pigg of Tessella, who took part for the second year running.  Pigg continues: “The ability of the swimmers varied enormously, but we all completed our 50 lengths.  I’m really proud of everyones efforts.”

The money raised will help provide free care for terminally ill people.

And with each eCard sent, Tessella pledged to pay £1 to Cancer Research UK.   A grand total of £1,000 was raised for Cancer Research UK!

 

Tessella employees volunteered to help with conservation efforts at two sites in Oxford; the Oxford Urban Wildlife Trust’s 6-acre Boundary Brook Nature Reserve and the Ss. Mary and John Churchyard Project.

Out in full force, and with tools supplied by Oxford Urban Wildlife and the Churchyard Project, 48 Tessella employees helped clear over-growth in both sites,the work involved strimming, weeding and raking,  and pruning hedges and trees.. To improve accessibility to the newer areas of the nature reserve the team helped in clearing and laying paths.

Tessella’s efforts will help encourage a varied and thriving ecosystem in a busy urban environment, while the cleared paths ensure the local community can enjoy these wildlife spaces. Both sites rely heavily on volunteers to help maintain the areas.

David Cole, Analyst Programmer, Tessella, said: ‘The response I received for the Tessella Community Day was overwhelming.  It was great to see everybody contributing and as a team we could make a huge impact  to these important community sites.’

David Cole added: ‘Not only were Tessella contributing to the local community but it also proved to be a perfect team-building day with a difference. It was so popular that I’ve no doubt we’ll return to strengthen these community ties year after year’.

Ruth Conway, who has coordinated the work to transform the churchyard from a derelict no-go area to an attractive quiet green space, says: ‘Being a small team, we cannot manage all the maintenance tasks ourselves.  We are extremely grateful that Tessella employees took time off to prune the conservation hedges, clear overgrown invasive plants, and strim and rake tangled grass.”

Ruth added: ‘We rely heavily on companies like Tessella who volunteer to help us tackle these conservation tasks – it makes all the difference.’

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Notes to editors:

For press enquiries or to arrange an interview with Tessella please contact Christina Tealdi, Marketing Communications & PR Executive, on +44 (0) 1235 555511 or christina.tealdi@tessella.com

Contact details

Oxford Urban Wild Life
Visit www.ouwg.org.uk
info@tessella.com

Tessella employees from the Burton branch, took time out to spend the day working with park ranges from East Staffordshire District Council on the Kingfisher Project, an initiative aimed at the regeneration of land around the Trent and Mersey Canal. 

Tessella employees planted a variety of fruit trees by the park entrances creating a more welcoming environment for visitors.  Employees also planted thorny bushes in strategic locations to discourage antisocial behaviour in some of the more secluded areas of the park.

All in all, everyone had a great day and left feeling that they really had made a difference.

For more information on the Kingfisher project, please visit http://www.kingfisherproject.org.uk/

• Restoring Victorian culverts
• Constructing and painting tree guards
• Planting trees

The National Trust Hare Hill Estate has only two full time grounds staff, and the Warden relies heavily on volunteers to maintain the gardens.

All in all, a Tessella team-building day with a difference.

Whilst the company exists to make a profit and to expand our operations, by the nature of the innovative work we do, we are quietly confident of the positive contribution we make.

However, when we have the opportunity, both company and staff also like to get involved with worthy causes. In March 2008, it was the turn of the Tessella Netherlands team, who spent a morning helping the Den Haag Stichting Voedselbank prepare parcels of food and household supplies for local less-well-off individuals and families.

De Voedselbank works to reduce the hidden poverty in the Netherlands. It is a private organization completely run by volunteers and during the last five years has grown rapidly. It has 80 branches and hands out 12,000 packages per week.

The goods that we packed had been provided by factories and retailers, and included Brussels sprouts, leeks and 400 Kg of deep frozen chicken nuggets. They were 100% safe to eat, but could no longer be sold for one reason or the other (for some the packaging was damaged and for others the expiry date was looming). Without this scheme, the goods would have been thrown away or converted to cattle feed.

Our parcels were sent off to distribution centres around the country, for collection by those registered with Stichting Voedselbank.

All in all, quite a change from a normal working day, and the team went home confident that they had contributed something useful to the community.

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