If you think students spend all their spare time avoiding studying, going out with their mates and having a good time then you'd be right. Well our student bloggers do anyway. While they assure us they don't slack on the study, they've got a lot to answer for when it comes to enjoying themselves while volunteering.

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Sunday Nov 23, 2008

It's Christmas. Again.

 
It's getting seriously cold now, my friend tried to type out his essay wearing gloves earlier today (I'm not joking!), and none of us can work out how to bleed the radiators in our freezing, non-insulated house. Apparently this lack of bleeding is why, every morning, the radiator in my room heats up, ever so slightly, at the bottom – providing the faintest insight as to what life might be like with a fully functioning radiator. Imagine that.

Anyway, that digression links neatly into the fact that Christmas is coming, the annual 'BNP membership list leakage' has already happened and also, there are lots of opportunities to help out and showcase largesse anywhere you'd like over the festive period.

In Sheffield the Uni's Volunteer Committee are running a four day publicity event called 'Winter Warmers', just to make sure that everyone is aware of what opportunities are out there for anyone interested. I'm even thinking of joining in. And I hate Christmas.

Here are some of the things going on in Sheffield, just to give any of you a taster as to what might be available in your area:

• Christmas Gifts Appeal: "Brighten up Christmas for the local homeless, families fleeing domestic violence, refugees and asylum seekers by preparing them a gift"
• Christmas Party: "Get into the party spirit this Christmas by helping to run activities, supervise dodgem cars and prepare a buffet for children suffering from life limiting illnesses and their siblings."
• Santa 5k: "In aid of Amy's Retreat, why not lend a hand (register runners, hand out costumes etc), or enter as a runner (£5 entry fee).  Free Santa outfit provided!"
• Homeless and Rootless at Christmas (HARC): "Help provide food and entertainment to guests at this city-centre shelter for homeless and vulnerable people over Christmas & New Year"
I'm seriously considering the 5k run in a Santa costume. Of course, to check any events going on in your area you can use the Do-It database search or alternatively get in touch with your local Volunteer Centre

and they will be able to find you something no doubt.

Maybe I'll be able to get some pictures up of someone hating Christmas whilst simultaneously doing a 5k run in a Santa costume haha.

  

Posted by Harry ( 12:22 AM )
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Tuesday Nov 04, 2008

Tea and giggles

Hi! I’m Olivia, I live in Belfast and I volunteer in a Marie Curie Charity Shop, which is the centre of the local community. Some people come in once and never again and some come in every day wanting a red handbag or a cut glass bowl; asking if things would suit Jenny or Sarah, when none of us knows who Jenny or Sarah is!

On my first shift an elderly volunteer with misty blue eyes, lowered her cup of tea and exclaimed to the assembled company – ‘The only reason people volunteer in this shop is because they have nothing better to do!’ There was a moment of stunned and awkward silence as everyone turned to glance nervously in my direction in case I felt in some way insulted and in an instant we were all helpless with laughter, shaking our mugs of tea and slopping the contents! There was the new girl (me) at 21, the manager, in her forties, a regular leaning against the doorway between the shop and the back room, in her sixties and the straight talker, in her seventies, all roaring with laughter in the little room filled with bags of clothes and boxes of china, books and Barbie dolls.

Later, that lady would receive her five-year badge in a little ceremony of presentation and flowers and she had been working there for five years for the same reasons that saw us all there on a Saturday morning - because we all want to raise money for the extraordinary work of Marie Curie Cancer Care in their hospices, in providing free nursing care to allow people the choice to spend their last moments at home, and in carrying out research to improve care and treatment for patients. We were there because there are few people today who have not known someone affected by cancer and because we all want even in a small way, for a few hours a week, to stand alongside the doctors and nurses, the scientists, the administrators and managers, as part of this organisation and its work.

But what kept us there was exactly those hysterical moments; the banter and the craic. Even my disastrous first encounters with the demon till were greeted with laughter and sympathy in equal measure! One member of staff, formerly in the army, said that she avoided it at all costs, which explains why when she, finding herself the only one on the shop-floor with a queue forming shouts ‘TILL!’ at the top her voice, which makes everyone else giggle until they reach her and then loudly declare their intention of killing her – regularly bringing down the house.

The charity shop is not only a miniature production line in which clothes come in, are sorted, hung, steamed, priced, displayed, sold, culled, but a permanent car boot sale, an antiques store, a meeting place, a treasure trove, a comedy show, an agony aunt, and a community lifeline for people alone. It is always filled with characters, with drama and incident; where the joys and sorrows of multiple lives are played out to laughter, (elbows on a counter covered in glass bowls and tea sets) over cream buns and mugs of tea.

More soon…..

Olivia x

Posted by Olivia ( 4:59 PM )
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Monday Nov 03, 2008

Selfish Altruism?

On the 24^th October I completed the Spiderwalk – a 26 mile walk around the Sheffield area, starting at 9pm - along with other members of the Volunteering Committee. Its aim was to raise money for charity, although there seems to be some uncertainty as to which charity all the money is going to. Nonetheless money has been raised and the event was great fun, if a little gruelling.

The first 23 miles or so went absolutely fine as we wandered out of the city and into the quiet countryside of the Peak District. Generally we were all feeling good but then, with only 3 miles to go, my body started to tell me that it didn't like walking constantly for 7 hours, at a time when it was usually sleeping. This seemed to be the message most people were getting at this time and two of our group had to drop out with the end almost in sight.

 Thankfully the rest of us managed to keep going and for the second year in a row I was one of the last to cross the finish line! The event was organised by Sheffield Rag, and there are RAG (Raising And Giving) events held throughout the country – organised by students. (What is RAG?)

Aside from this I have had my first training session for my role as one of the publicity officers for the Sheffield Uni's Volunteering Committee. It's been quite interesting getting to grips with what they do and how all these committees work but I am still a relative newbie so hopefully I will be more informative later on in the year.

Two things we focused on were the under-represented groups in volunteering, and the image of volunteering. As a white male from a middle class background, I tend to be over-represented in things, but at Sheffield University volunteering females completely outnumber their opposite sex, especially where children are involved. I also had similar experiences whilst volunteering abroad over last summer. Maybe we are less charitable? More lazy? Or maybe we are worried about being labelled paedophiles if we volunteer with children?

Who knows, but some people have also begun to think that the image of volunteering is bad, and that the word 'volunteering' itself may have negative connotations. Working on the publicity for volunteering at the University I'd like to challenge some of these assumptions, but part of me wants to say that if you are really put off by the word 'volunteering' then yes - you probably shouldn't volunteer. I'm pretty selfish myself, so I am wary of claiming the moral high-ground here.

Recent volunteer opportunities at the Uni have been publicised under the title 'V!', and of course we can emphasise the skills that can be gained from volunteering and the affect it has on your CV – but surely it is primarily about helping something external from you? Can you volunteer to help yourself?

NfpSynergy – a specialist research consultancy for not-for-profit organisations - has lots to say about this in their report – The 21^st Century Volunteer.  

 

Posted by Harry ( 9:47 PM )
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