Fraedom—4 November 2020

Fraedom is a global software company offering transaction management products and services, including expense management and accounts payable solutions. Today, for the first time, a group of Fraedom people spent a company sponsored volunteer day at CUE Haven.

The group was from the SAAS Software Development Mayans & Apache teams and included David, Gavin, Hasitha, Jason, Jati, Jaymie, Jennifer, Jephunneh, Joel, Jun, Oscar, Priyanka, Saranga, Saranya, Toban and Vajira.  Hasitha had previously been out to CUE Haven for a community volunteer day and we want to thank him for encouraging his colleagues at Fraedom to come to CUE Haven for their volunteer day.

Also joining us for the day was our good friend and regular volunteer Alan.

Because everyone was new to CUE Haven, Mahrukh took some time to explain the history and philosophy of CUE Haven and our plans for the future.  Thomas then gave a safety briefing and described the work planned for the day.

The plan for the day was to continue to work on a new walking track connecting the main track with the viewing platform area. We drove up to the site and went to work.  Once on site, Thomas showed the group the work to be done and they then split into teams to tackle the separate track sections.

A previous team had installed side boards on one side of the track and the first task was to finish off the other side.  The team determined the correct placement for the side boards and went to work digging out channels for the side boards.

They checked the planned layout with a test board.

Once they were happy with the layout, the boards were cut to size.

The side boards were installed and nailed and pegged into place.

The nailing process was greatly helped because Alan had brought his nail gun.

On a sloping section of the track, the team installed some steps to make it easier for people walking up and down.

As they moved further down, they came to a section where a side track split off from the track they were building.  They spent some time studying how to best connect the tracks and came up with a great solution.

The job involved a lot of digging to level the area and make room for the side boards.

They also had to install some additional steps.

They continued down the track, installing side boards and steps as needed.

Because of the amount of digging and levelling required, there were several high and low spots on the track and the team dug them out or filled them with dirt as necessary.

They then levelled the entire track and raked it smooth.

When they were finished, they brought up all the tools and gear.

And the result of all their hard work is a good looking easy to use track.

In order to finish off the track and make it easy to use in all weather, we spread a layer of gravel on the newly completed track sections. We went down to the car park and filled buckets with gravel.

We then drove up to the work site and the gravel was spread on the track sections and raked smooth.

And here is the result of all the hard work!

In addition to the track work, we also asked the team to help out with two other small tasks.

First, the drain pipe for the retaining wall near the viewing platform was exposed and unsightly and we asked them to cut it down to size and cover it up.

We will be finishing off the area with some landscaping.

We also asked the team to trim back some vegetation that had overgrown another walking track section that we will be working on later this summer.

The group accomplished an amazing amount of work in a few hours and made some major improvements.

A massive THANK YOU to everyone who came along today and a special thank you to David for organising the visit and to Hasitha for championing CUE Haven at Fraedom.

And also special thanks to our dear friend Alan for joining the team for the day.

We really enjoyed meeting you all and working with you. And we very much appreciate all your good ideas and hard work.  Everyone’s efforts has made a major contribution to the CUE Haven landscape and set a high standard for other teams to follow to complete the task.

We look forward to having you all back this summer with your family and friends for a relaxing visit to explore more of your community native forest reserve and back again next year for another fun and productive volunteer day.

Thank You!! Thank You!!