The Ayres Visitor Centre, managed by the Manx Wildlife Trust, the Island’s leading nature conservation charity, recently underwent a major revamp, thanks to the considerable effort of teams of volunteers from AXA Wealth International.

The Visitor Centre is situated within the Ayres National Nature Reserve which comprises 673 acres of lichen heath, dunes and gorse scrub owned by the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture and Manx National Heritage. The Ayres has several wildlife habitats unique to the Island and, as a result, is home to some very special species of flora and fauna. The Visitor Centre provides a focal point for exploring the area.

A group of AXA Wealth International employees spent two days transforming the Ayres Visitor Centre in time for the summer season. The 14-strong team divided themselves into smaller groups and had a generous ?3,000 to spend on the renovation work, thanks to fundraising and donations from staff earlier in the year.

The work undertaken involved: painting the interior and exterior walls of the Visitor Centre; stripping out all of the old display units and replacing these with new ones; updating the shop area by fitting it out with new units for the sale of wildlife-related gifts, as well as new slatted walls for displaying leaflets and information about events and activities; producing new interpretation boards covering such topics as bird and marine life, the geology of the area and the Ramsey Bay Marine Nature Reserve. The volunteers even refurbished the bench that sits outside the Centre!

Robbie Moore, head of information technology, AXA Wealth International, who volunteered on the project, said: “It’s great that we can use work time to help our local community and get to know each other better while having some fun along the way. We’re really proud of the work we’ve completed powered by the fundraising efforts of our colleagues. We hope that everyone enjoys the Manx Wildlife Trust Ayres Visitor Centre as much as we did restoring it.”

The Manx Wildlife Trust is very grateful to everyone from AXA Wealth International who worked on this project and all the staff who helped with the fundraising. The revamped Visitor Centre opens for the summer season with a series of special events over the weekend of 16 and 17 May 2015. Kindly manned by Manx Wildlife Trust volunteers, the Centre will then be open most afternoons, from 2 to 5pm, through to September. For more information please visit the Trust’s website, www.manxwt.org.uk.  

Photo - AXA team at the Ayres.jpg (one of the teams of volunteers from AXA Wealth International, L-R – Sarah Young, Sam Curphy, Mike Foy, Clair Raeside, Robbie Moore, Craig Stephen).