Liz volunteers with Lesnes Abbey Woods junior parkrun
Liz is part of the core team at the Lesnes Abbey Woods junior parkrun and her roles vary from being run director (overseeing the running of the event) to tail-runner, marshalling, finish token provider, barcode scanner and timekeeper!
How long have you been volunteering?
Less than 4 years with parkrun, 18-20 months with junior parkrun
What is a typical volunteering day for you?
junior parkrun occurs at 9am Sunday mornings. As long as the run doesn't need to be cancelled for other events, bad weather, or other reasons, the run director will be at the course between 8am/8.15amon the Sunday morning to set up the course, prepare the equipment, arrange the Hi-Viz vests, whistles, emergency details etc, for the rest of the team who arrive for 8.30am.
And then wait for the children to arrive
The run is usually complete by 9.20am and then it's time to pack everything away, thank everyone and head home to process the results. Or pop to the café at the park for coffee and cake! On a good day the results can be sent out by 10.30am, which leaves the remainder of the weekend to you!
The week prior to the run will have included dialogue with the previous weeks run director, arrange for the handover of the parkrun equipment for the run, clear, prepare and charge the equipment for the next run, send out appeal for volunteers, and monitor email &the various media channels waiting for volunteers to contact parkrun, to ensure we have volunteers for the run on Sunday
As my husband and children also run and volunteer at parkrun, this is usually a family team effort, so everyone has a role to play and it tends to fit smoothly with home life!
How do you fit volunteering into your life?
Junior Parkrun occurs at 9am on Sunday mornings. The run is usually completed by 9.20am and on a good day, when there are no computer or equipment issues, the results can be sent out by 10.30am, it leaves the rest of the weekend to you. My husband and children are also involved at parkrun, so the preparation during the week leading up to the junior parkrun is usually a team effort.
What do you enjoy about your volunteering?
As parkrun is designed for children aged 4 - 14 years to run a course with or without grown ups, it's lovely to see them running, jogging, walking or even skipping happily around the course. The younger children enjoy chatting to each other or to the volunteers as they make their way around the course and some see it as a way of making friends, or running competitively in a safe environment. Seeing how happy the children are, with their big smiles and high fives, makes it worth while on a Sunday morning.
What have you learnt from your volunteering?
That you feel part of something that matters to others, and can have an impact on the health and well being of the children. You have a sense of community.
How you did get into your volunteering? Where did you find out about the role?
About4 years ago my older son and I started running at the local Bexley 5k parkrun on Saturday mornings. It was there that we met Mel Gordon who was canvassing the runners to see if we thought a 2k junior parkrun was a good idea. As I have a younger son, I thought it was a good idea, and Easter 2015the first junior parkrun at Lesnes Abbey Woods took place. We joined later in the year and started marshalling and tail-running at first, and this eventually extended into joining the Core team.
What would you say to other people who are interested in volunteering?
Volunteering at any event is important and it helps others, which gives you a sense of doing something good and helpful for others, even though they may not realise you are giving up your own time to help them, and you don't always receive a 'thank you'.
At parkrun it is known that the events cannot take place without the aid of volunteers, often with more required at the junior parkrun's as the children need to be in sight at all times. So if anyone is interested in helping, please do so, it helps the rest of the team, and makes runs possible for the children, therefore they get to do their runs with lots of smiles and high fives!!!
What top 3 words would you use to describe your experience of volunteering?
- Fun
- being useful (to others and the event)
- most importantly; Teamwork