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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Tuesday Oct 21, 2008

Walking Around Sheffield in the Middle Of the Night. For Charity of Course.

   The academic year has started in earnest now so it’s time to neglect studies, sit back, and play solitaire on windows - naturally. Apart from that I have been volunteering at the Sheffield radio station Sheffield Live FM twice a week and have even got involved with union and joined a committee – the Sheffield Volunteering Committee. As I’ve only just joined them it’s hard to get a feel for how it works, however everyone seemed very friendly and there were no Nazi-esque initiation ceremonies like the one causing a little stir in the news recently.  

  What they have been doing is organising some great things, and this Friday a few of us from the committee will be entering the RAG organised event, “Spiderwalk”. Think less volunteering, more sponsored-madness. It involves a 26 mile walk around Sheffield starting at 9pm, all for the purposes of raising money for a variety of charities. When you put it like that it doesn’t sound too bad, but I did it last year and I can distinctly remember the phrase ‘never again’ running through my head as me and my friend arrived at the final checkpoint. That walk had started at midnight and I had imagined the sight of a beautiful sunrise inspiring us as we sampled the nearby peak district in the early morning. Instead we were shrouded in a thick mist and went wandering off completely the wrong way, adding a needless five miles extra to our ramble. My friend and I very nearly finished last out of nearly one hundred students!

   Still, the Volunteer Committee are doing it together and I am somewhat sadistically looking forward to it this Friday. If anyone wants to sponsor me feel free to leave a comment at the end of this page and I will put some pictures up if/when I complete it.

    I’ve realised that I missed out last year by not being involved in the union’s volunteer projects and instead just doing my own thing, so if anyone has just got to university and is looking for something to do it might be worthwhile to check if your union has similar things. On the other hand, I found out about Sheffield Live FM through the do-it.org.uk database and the experience has been so enjoyable (if very amateurish). If I get anywhere above ‘mumbling idiot’, I might put a link up to the show. But more on the radio project later.....back to the solitaire.

Posted by Harry ( 11:16 PM )
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