WGE are dedicated to supporting the community in which our people live and work.
We made a decision to redirect all monies traditionally spent on corporate gifts and other such expenses into financial contributions to causes and community projects that they’re supporting. A radical overhaul of how our promotional and marketing dollars are spent has seen a move towards supporting initiatives that significantly contribute to the betterment of the community.
Each year a number of carefully selected projects are chosen that will involve the use of our people’s skills, talents and time while also making a financial contribution to these projects. Here’s just a few of our community events.
Perth to Busselton bike ride
Since 2006 WGE has been holding the Perth to Busselton Bike ride. Around 40 employees, clients, family members and friends take to the road for this 250km ride, which takes around 12 hours to complete.
The organisers of the event stress that it’s not a race and that they all ride as fast as the slowest rider, however there’s a little sprint at the end for those with a competitive streak. Each year the organising committee decides on a charity to raise funds for. In 2012 they raised over $4400 for Cystic Fibrosis and in 2013 they raised funds for The Hunger Project .
The 2014 ride is to take place Friday 14th November and the team are expecting the biggest riding crew to date! This year all funds raised go to the Edmund Rice WA Camp for kids programs.
The journey ends at the Busselton office where riders and their family meet for drinks before sharing dinner at the local pub and an overnight stay. It’s a fabulous way to create camaraderie within the WGE team while supporting a great cause.
For more information or media enquiries on the Perth to Busselton Bike Ride contact Shelley Phillipson
The ANZAC Visitor Centre France
Our WGE Director Grant Holman is also a founding director of the newly established Australian Remembrance Foundation. The foundation is being established with the prime objective to build a visitors’ centre on the Western Front battlefields of France, in the Pozières area where there were over 30,000 Australian casualties in WW1 (over 3 times as many as the Gallipoli campaign).
WGE will be involved in the design of the centre which will aim to include an interactive museum, an education center and a capability for relatives and friends to search for the names of fallen soldiers.
Currently the Foundation is looking to partner with University undergraduates to facilitate a design competition where the WGE team is able to actively mentor and guide the young students in what is an exciting project.
The aim is to have the centre completed by the 100th year anniversary of Armistice Day on 11.11.2018. Grant and the Foundation will be involved in pulling together the project team required to acquire the land, design the building, build it and launch the initiative to the Australian and French public.
For more information or media inquiries contact Grant Holman
The Hunger Project
Morgan Phillips is the HR Manager at WGE and is being supported by her co-workers in her fundraising efforts for The Hunger Project (THP), a charity that works to break the cycle of poverty. THP believes hungry people themselves are the key to ending hunger. In partnership they unleash their vision, commitment and action so they can feed themselves and their family. Morgan is taking a leadership journey to India with 20 other women and is working towards raising $10,000 to donate to The Hunger Project.
Her fellow staff are supporting her and all funds raised from the Perth to Busselton Bike Ride will be donated to The Hunger Project. For more information contact Morgan Martin.
Archikids
Archikids was a one-day free festival hosted at Carriage Works, Sydney on Saturday 5 October 2013. The purpose of the event was to excite kids about the possibility of getting into architecture, engineering, design and the environment. Over 300 kids aged 7-12 years old came together to work on a variety of design and construction projects. This year’s theme was ‘building bridges’. After decorating their own hard-hats the kids worked in teams of five to build their bridges using cardboard boxes and various plastic pieces.
WGE is proud to have been the corporate partner alongside City of Sydney. Prizes were awarded for the tallest and most stable bridges and a short presentation was given by Daniel Castro, our WGE acoustics engineer, where he explained what an engineer did and what type of engineers are needed in our society. For more information on ArchiKidz Click here.
Helping in our communities
WGE support their local communities through donating their time and skills to local endeavours. Projects such as this have included a new clubhouse for the Kingsley Football Club in Western Australia in memory of members lost in the Bali bombings, the remediation of the Cottesloe Pylon in Western Australia and a new administration building for the Cancer Council of Western Australia. In addition to these projects individuals within Wood & Grieve actively support personal causes. Most recently our very own CEO, José Granado, took part in the Vinnie’s CEO Sleepout Challenge and the 24 hour wheelchair challenge. His journey on the wheelchair challenge was captured by the ABC and shown on ABC 7.30 Report Friday, 5 September 2014 and highlights just how challenging this task was.