Volunteers’ Week is a time to say thank you for the fantastic contribution volunteers make.

During the week, hundreds of events and celebrations take place across the country, saying thank you to volunteers and recognising their invaluable and diverse contribution to UK society

So what would we have missed out on without volunteers? Well London 2012, for a start, featured 70,000 voluntary Gamesmakers – the Games simply couldn’t have happened without them.

On a more local level, there are hundreds of thousands of volunteers making the little things happen – volunteer drivers, carers, guide/scout leaders, football coaches, and community building management teams to name but a few. Almost all of us will benefit in some way from someone volunteering their time free of charge.

And it’s great for the volunteers themselves – learning new skills, meeting new friends, it’s a fantastic way to enrich your own life at the same time as helping others, and is an important foundation of our society.  

Inspired? How can you help?

Our village hall provides a crucial locaiton for villagers (especially the elderly and vulnerable) to meet through Ladies’ Club, Hort Soc and various exercise classes during the week. We also run several social events a year including the extremely popular seniors’ Christmas lunch and children’s Christmas party. We fund much of the upkeep of the hall by hiring it out for children’s parties, weddings and other celebrations.

We need someone to commit a couple of hours a week to support our trustees and bookings secretary in ensuring that our facilities are maintained to the standard expected by our hirers. The role consists of checking the hall and grounds each week to make sure, for example, lights are all working, nothing is broken, no hazards to report. If anything does need flagging you would raise it with the committee so expenditure can be approved.

We’re also looking for a secretary (this is a Trustee position). You’d prepare an agenda for our monthly meeting plus take, circulate and keep a record of all minutes at the meeting. There may be a small amount of additional correspondence.

Finally we’d love some help with our online presence (website, facebook, twitter and monthly email) and quarterly newsletter. This would suit a sixth former or student looking for some experience in digital and print marketing and communications. You’d assist with writing and possibly layout and proofreading of the quarterly newsletter and monthly email, plus making sure all digital channels are kept ticking over and assist with targeted campaigns for particular events (for example the annual fête).  

If any of this is of interest please do get in touch: contact@bellingdon.com or speak to any of the committee.

Come and join us at our last community pub night before Christmas.

We’ll have home cooked food, real ale, prosecco, pub games and a healthy dose of Christmas cheer.

For your diary, January’s pub night will be on Friday 18th and February’s on 22nd.