Volunteering in a Village

starting next. Ok, ok. OK. Hello

Um, so, uh, please do Introduce yourself and also say how long you've lived in this village. Uh, hello. Um, my name's Richard

Uh, I've lived in the same village now for just about 30 years. Um, it's a lively community with a good mix of all ages and interests. And I really enjoy living here

Yeah. So, um, what sort of things do you get involved with then? As a volunteer, what do you do as a volunteer in this community? Uh, I I've got a couple of roles, Really. I'm a I'm a parish councillor

And within that role, uh, I coordinate projects across our open spaces, Uh, such as developing and, uh, and building a wildlife garden. Uh, we've established a community orchard, Um, a memorial garden, Um, and we're upgrading play areas. So there's there's always projects to do and maintenance

And, uh um, So that's one role, and the other role, uh, I have is I'm a a treasurer for our church. Uh, and apart from keeping the general accounts, uh, there there's always maintenance needs on our lovely old listed building. And, um, that that require funding

Uh, as well as ongoing projects that we have, uh, the current one being we, uh, we Our objective is to build a new community kitchen within the church. That's that's great. Um, very exciting opportunities

What do you like about volunteering? Why do you do it? Um well, I like to be busy. I like to make good use of whatever few talents or skills I've been lucky enough to have. Um, so I like to use them I, I I guess I enjoy the challenges of seeing what we can achieve

Um uh, uh, through fundraising and then delivering these projects and and and seeing the value and hopefully the benefit that it brings to our community. It's satisfying to create and deliver something that you see being used and appreciated. Uh, so I, I enjoy that

I enjoy sort of having a list of things I want to do and kind of ticking them off, going to bed at night and saying, you know, that was satisfying. That worked. But the other thing is that there's usually several people involved in any of these projects

Uh, and it's it's enjoyable working and achieving something together. And from that you build up your own social group of friends, and it's all part of feeling, uh, building your roots within your community. Yeah, and so are those the main reasons why you volunteer? I think so

And it's, um it's a two way thing as well. It's not. It's not purely altruistic, and I do things because I enjoy doing them

Um, and I think I. I think there's always plenty of things that you could do if you if you have spare time. There's always people looking for volunteers and support

Uh, what I found is that you must, um you must do things that you've got your heart into. Uh, it's it's no good saying Yeah, I'll do something. And then you regret saying you you want to do it so I do

I do it because I want to do it because I enjoy doing it and because I think it brings value. Yeah, that those are great reasons to volunteer. And I think challenging that

That about volunteering? Um, yeah, well, there's There's always changes in terms of what people want to do. And then what? What time they have, Uh, probably the biggest challenge is getting finding funds, raising money to to deliver these projects. Um, there are grants available

You know, we we're reasonably successful in getting getting awards, but, um, not always the case, Uh, so, you know, fundraising, working together Clearly, you know, with these projects are everyone's a volunteer in these these kind of activities. So it's not like being at work where there's a management structure and the disciplines that people are expected to follow. It's It's far more relaxed and casual, so things may take a bit longer

People may have different aspirations and you have to work through those so they can be challenges. Yeah, but a good overall outcome. Hopefully, most times, most times

Yes. Thank you so much. Those are really interesting and inspiring answers

Thank you. You're very welcome. Thank you

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