Member Article

Matt Makes Wishes Come True

Crewe man, Matt Reen, is always up for a challenge and well-known for his kind heart. He works for local family business, Swansway Motor Group as a Fleet Sales Exec and often takes on the role of Santa for the business, given his 6ft 5in height and happy personality he makes a great one.

It was while in his Santa role that Matt found his next adventure, helping out local charity, Wishing Well; SEN Young People Service lead, Jan Melia takes up the story, “Wishing Well’s mission is to improve the health and wellbeing of local people by providing a wide range of service and as SEN Young Peoples lead I’ve been working with Swansway for 2 years, nurturing our relationship and ongoing development of a community partnership agreement. Swansway embrace corporate social responsibility and for us this means they’re fully committed in supporting Wishing Well”.

“We wanted to take nine young people on our first ever outdoors adventure break to St Asaph, but, needed a male volunteer, as we have a mixed group. Then Matt came along to our Christmas lunch, our young people loved bis infectious energy and fun, so I asked if he would join us on our residential trip and he said yes, which meant the adventure was on”!

Matt to gain both first aid and safeguarding qualifications, completed his DBS check and last week headed off with Jan and her group as Matt explains, “When I met this wonderful group at Christmas I just had so much fun with them all, so, when Jan asked if I could help out, I didn’t hesitate. I’ve got to know them during the last 6 months and met their parents too. I’ve had an amazing time supporting these young people and I can’t express just how rewarding it is. Yes, it’s hard work and it’s challenging, but it was so worthwhile. I wouldn’t hesitate to volunteer again”.

While the group were in St Asaph, they built a raft, sailed it down the river, took part in kayaking, archery, bushcraft and many more activities, they had a wonderful experience, none of which would have been possible without Matt.

Jan added, “Our residential wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for Matt and Swansway, so, we owe them a huge than you for making this possible”.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Karen Walker .