Grundfos staff make hundreds of dementia boxes for Fans' Museum and get special visit from SAFC FA cup legend
“We didn’t know Bobby was coming, so it was a big surprise and everyone enjoyed meeting him”
One of the city’s biggest companies, Grundfos, has spent a team building day at the Stadium of Light pumping up footballs for a local special school and creating 500 dementia boxes which will be distributed by the Fans Museum to care homes, hospitals and hospices.
Back in May, the Museum opened the Bobby Kerr Dementia Centre and SAFC’s 1973 FA Cup winning captain also paid a special visit to show his support for the community initiatives.
The dementia boxes aim to spark happy memories for those living with dementia and Fans Museum founder Michael Ganley also spoke to Grundfos employees on the day.
Michael said: “We had four workshops going, all working to help create our dementia boxes. The first workshop was sorting football programmes for the boxes – they can trigger some very happy memories of first games attended or going to a match with specific friends or family.
“The second workshop looked at understanding design and technology used in football – from modern strips to football boots. During this session people looked at hundreds of strips I took along, as well as old and new football boots.
“The third workshop looked at photography and football, and we had pictures taken of everyone individually with the FA Cup and the Women’s Premier League Cup, while the fourth workshop looked at how the other three workshops fitted together.
“Throughout the sessions people talked about relations and friends living with dementia and they could see how our dementia boxes could help.”
The Grundfos team had started the day with a challenge – to pump up as many footballs as they could manage, with many of the balls going Portland Academy, with whom Grundfos has a longstanding relationship.
Another visitor who met the 180 attendees was South Shields’ Olympic swimming gold medallist Chris Cook.
Catherine Attwell, Head of Country and Plant HR, UK, for Grundfos, said: “We had a busy but enjoyable day at the stadium.
“Chris gave an inspirational keynote talk, called Two Lengths of the Pool, which was all about keeping things simple, controlling the controllables and the sacrifices he had to make to be a successful athlete.
“We didn’t know Bobby was coming, so it was a big surprise and everyone enjoyed meeting him. We also really enjoyed having Michael with us – as well as his workshops, he set up a mini Fans’ Museum in the Players’ Lounge and everyone had a good look at the shirts worn by people like David Beckham and Gazza.
“Volunteering is part of our DNA at Grundfos and we enjoyed the opportunity to help the Fans Museum with its dementia boxes. We hope to send more people to volunteer with Michael.”
Grundfos first opened a plant in Washington in 1973, before moving to its current Castletown site in 1980. The company now employs about 160 people in the city and more than 19,000 people globally – making it the world’s leading pump manufacturer.