Happy National Volunteers Week

Volunteer 

a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task.

It's National Volunteers Week, and as well as highlighting the good work that volunteers do daily across the country, I believe it is a good opportunity for you too to get involved. I think the best way for me to express the fun, sense of achievement and ability to gain new skills through using myself and my work with Girlguiding as a case study. I don't just volunteer with Girlguiding though, I also volunteer with The Scout Association and in my local church. 

I'm a Brownie Leader, some of you may have been Brownies, but for those of you who don't know- Brownies are the second section of Girlguiding, for ages aged between 7 and 10 years. We have a wide range of girls, some who were Rainbows, Some who come from a different school to everyone else, some very loud, some very quiet... It's a good combination which works very well and means the girls have an opportunity to meet new friends from different places.

 

I was a Brownie in the unit I now volunteer with, and from the moment I left at age 10, I knew that I wanted to return to help and give something back as soon as I could.So at 13 I arrived back at my old unit, ready to help out and 10 years later (And 4 other units later when I was at Uni) i'm still here. 

I don't have any more spare time than other people, I work 44 hours per week and spend, on average 2.5 hours travelling each day too, which means i'm out of the house around 11/12 hours per day.But I feel that spending a bit of time helping others is not only rewarding, but also gives me the time away from other stresses and the opportunity to have a lot of fun.

Animals, children, the environment, religion and many more possibilities- 

What have you given up your time to do recently?