Workers travelled to Montrose from across Europe to get stuck in at the deep end for a community project.
The Montrose Playhouse Project took ownership of the town’s former swimming pool last year after striking a £1 deal with Angus Council and aims to create an arts centre and three-screen digital cinema within the refurbished building.
DIY SOS events held at the pool have already saved £300,000-worth of work.
A 15-strong team of volunteers from Baker Hughes, a GE company, have just given the team a helping hand on the final stages of the pool strip out.
The work was an important step that will enable specialists to continue construction of the facility’s community activity rooms and part of the Reel Café Bar.
The BHGE volunteers had travelled to Montrose from sites across Europe for the opening of the company’s new learning and development centre.
They dedicated part of their visit to supporting the playhouse project and were impressed with the amount of work completed to date and the project overall.
Lorenzo Romagnoli, Global Supply Chain Director for BHGE’s oilfield equipment division, said: “Volunteering is an important part of our organisation’s culture and employees at all our sites are encouraged to develop and build strong partnerships in their local communities, supporting projects that make a difference.
“The playhouse project is incredibly ambitious and will be a great facility for the people that live and work in Montrose and the surrounding areas.
“Its progress is dependent on the support of the community and we are happy to have been able to play a small part in bringing the vision to life.”
The facility will have the full range of cinema experiences but each screen will have a secondary use and we will also have multi-use rooms for community and conference space, exhibitions, classes and lots more.
David Paton, chairman of Montrose Playhouse Project, said: “We are hugely grateful to the team from BHGE for their efforts and are working with them to arrange more of these community teambuilding days at the playhouse.”
Upcoming fundraising events include the sequel to Mamma Mia with two showings at 4pm and 7pm on Saturday August 25.
The 7pm show is sold out but there are still tickets for the 4pm show.
There will also be a raffle which will be drawn at the end of the second screening which includes signed merchandise from the Mamma Mia Uk Tour cast.
Tickets at
https://www.indycinemagroup.com/tours/montrose/
