Last week, customers came together at Victoria and Elizabeth Close in Earls Barton to unveil a tree planted in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
The Wild Cherry Tree was donated to us as part of The Queen’s Green Canopy (QGC) which was created to mark her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee and encouraged people to ‘plant a tree for the Jubilee’. Local customer, John Hook, “jumped at the chance” to have one of the trees planted outside the communal room at Victoria and Elizabeth Close.
John said: “Rather than just planting the tree, I thought of a plaque to commemorate the occasion. I thought of asking Jo [Savage, chief executive at Greatwell Homes] to unveil the plaque as the Queen wasn’t available that day… and I’m glad I did! Jo gave a dedicated speech and talked of the importance of being proud of our communities”.
The tree unveiling took place on Tuesday 31st May and was followed by a Jubilee tea party for all the customers and staff who came to the event.
Jo Savage, our chief executive, had the honour of unveiling the plaque. She said: “I’ve been in housing for 33 years and it’s very rare that you get to do something as special as this. I’ve never had a plaque with my name on it and I don’t know who’s more excited about it, me or my mum!
“What a lovely way to honour her Majesty and 70 years of loyal service to us all. I think it’s absolutely fantastic”.
Live Proud is one of our strategies in our new corporate plan, Live Greatwell, and is about shaping places that people are proud of.
Jo continued: “Just coming here today, I can really feel the sense of community and that people are really proud to live here and call this their home”.
You can read more about our Live Proud strategy, as well as others, here.