Power workers from Southern Electric Power Distribution (SEPD) turned themselves into kennel-hands when they took a day away from their depot to lend a paw to Dogs Trust, Harefield.

A team of ten from our West London depot, spent a day building a new wooden activity platform to give the dogs an unusual play station, and also spent some time walking the dogs. In previous visits to Dogs Trust, SEPD staff have helped out with cleaning and various DIY jobs.

SEPD team manager, Brian Baker, said: “As part of its Community at Heart scheme, SSE gives us all a day away from our depot to help out in the community.  Different groups of us have been coming here for the past 12 months, doing what we can in the way of cleaning, painting, odd jobs – anything which needs doing.  And in the afternoons we get to walk the dogs, which everyone loves. Because we’ve been coming here for a while, it’s great continuity for both ourselves and the Dogs Trust.”

Bernice Craft, volunteer coordinator, at Dogs Trust Harefield, said: “With up to 150 dogs in our care at any time, we work hard to keep everything ship-shape, but there are some additional jobs we just don’t have the ‘manpower’ for.  This time around it was something a bit different with our doggie platform. The folk from SEPD have so many skills, we were delighted they were able to build this in a day, and the dogs really love it! 

“The teams from SEPD have always been very helpful and they tackle every job with dogged determination!  It makes such a difference to us to have volunteers lending a hand.”