Employees at Forest Garden have exchanged their work shoes for welly boots today (September 20) to help raise money for the gardening charity Thrive.

To show its continued support for the charity for fifth year running, Forest Garden staff are taking part in Thrive’s first major fundraising day: ‘Wear Your Wellies to Work.’ 

“We are delighted to be involved - it’s a simple, fun idea and one that we hope will help Thrive raise lots of money,” said head of marketing Nicola Simpson.

In addition, the company

 donated one of its new Boot Stores for Thrive to use as a competition prize, especially painted for this fundraising event.

Since 1978 Thrive has been helping change the lives through gardening for people living with disabilities or ill health. The charity supports them with gardening projects at home, on allotments, in community settings and gives them the opportunity to attend structured horticultural therapy programmes at its own gardens in London, Reading and Birmingham.

“We’re delighted that organisations throughout the UK have followed Forest Garden’s example in this fundraising campaign,” said Thrive business development manager Sandy Fitzgerald. “We are asking people to raise funds to enable us to improve accessibility across all of our sites, bringing horticultural therapy to more people living with disability, illness or vulnerability. We are asking everyone who dons their wellies to work to donate as much as they can afford and also non-participating colleagues to dig deep into their pockets. It’s all for a good cause and we hope to make this an annual event in everybody’s calendar.”