One centre for people with epilepsy and special needs, an enormous corridor, nine building society staff and Billy!

What an amazing day I had yesterday. I along with a few staff from Saffron Building Society, dedicated some time to help the St. Elizabeth's Centre, a national centre providing positive living and learning for people with Epilepsy and special needs, with a rather orange problem.

The central corridor at the centre has for the past few years been a rather psychedelic shade of bright orange, certainly not the most soothing of colours. The society, as part of our community programme was only too pleased to help when the centre asked if we could step in. We spent the day painting coat after coat of magnolia over the orange to clean up and refresh the area, ready for the staff and students to add decorations and personal touches.

I had seen photographs of the offending corridor, but when I arrived first thing in the morning, I have to admit to wondering if we had bitten off more we could chew. The sheer size of the wall space to be masked, cut in and painted, was to say the least a bit daunting. But the Saffron team pulled out all the stops and got the job finished to a high standard, which St. Elizabeth’s were delighted with.

We did have a little extra help during the day from some of the students, although as you can see from the photo, Billy who is a resident at the centre seemed more interested in painting me than the walls.

My staff did a cracking job which left me with a sense of pride and accomplishment, exactly the sort of activity that a regional mutual should be getting involved with. My thanks to Christian, Michael, Sue, Melanie, Chris, Ian, Linda, Heather and Richard for such an amazing effort.

Once my painting duties were over, I quickly had to remember what I actually do for a living. I rushed back to our head office in Saffron Walden, changed out of my paint covered scruff’s and donned a suit and tie, for a meeting of our Audit Committee with our external auditors to finalise our 2008 report and accounts for sign off at a board meeting later this week. I have to admit to chuckling to myself, sat in such a formal meeting and realising that my hands were still covered in magnolia paint....