Volunteering week was a labour of love for employees of MSD
Jason Culleton (left) and Dylan Thomas (right) from the Carlow County Development Partnership along with some of the staff from MSD who took part in the MSDGivesBack volunteer event helping with painting, carpentry and gardening at the Women’s Centre in Carlow Photo: michaelorourkephotography.ie
AN IMPRESSIVE 820 hours were volunteered by a team from MSD Carlow who worked tirelessly to give back to the local community.
As part of MSD Ireland’s All-Ireland volunteering week #MSDgivesback MSD Carlow partnered with Carlow Development Partnership to identify local organisations which had projects that would benefit from its volunteering efforts.
The chosen organisations were the Be Kind project and the Women’s Centre. During the week, more than 100 MSD Carlow colleagues worked tirelessly to transform the spaces – this included painting, insulating a new workshop, building raised horticultural beds, weatherproofing a new sensory cabin and generally tidying the overall garden. An impressive 820 hours were volunteered over two days.
Speaking at the event, Eva Gallagher, site lead, MSD Ireland, said: “It was wonderful to be part of the initiative and to see the immediate impact we as a team had on these wonderful organisations. There was an incredible atmosphere and team spirit over the two days and I was so impressed by the determination, focus and commitment of all colleagues to ensure that we went above and beyond to support the organisations and maximise our time with them.
“We barely stopped for a break, but don’t worry, we managed to have lots of fun along the way. It really was something special and I believe it was a wonderful opportunity for us to continue to strengthen relationships between the Carlow community and MSD Carlow,” said Eva.
Annette Fox, CEO of Carlow County Development Partnership, said “MSD has been a tremendous support in the development of community projects and initiatives over many years. The incredible work completed by the very talented and dedicated volunteers has made a huge difference in two non-stop days. This is a perfect example of how business and community can work together to build better futures. Thank you, MSD.” This year’s MSD Ireland built on the hugely successful events in Brinny and Ballydine in previous years and saw more than 500 MSD colleagues from its six sites volunteer more than 2,000 hours to 17 amazing organisations in local communities.
