Ah, summertime, when a young man's fancy turns to.....

...constructing an otter halt  (that's a house where otters live, dontcha know) or even building a butterfly garden...which is obviously a garden to attract butterflies rather than a butterfly's garden...

Actually as far as staff volunteering goes you don't even have to be a  man -young or otherwise -  to have a fancy!  All you need to do is ask and we'll see what we can arrange - obviously within the realms of volunteering, that is.   We've already quite a few challenges arranged for over the summer months that might suit.

And so far it seems our wonderful staff volunteers are willing to roll up their sleeves and get involved with just about anything the community can throw at them. Since October last year, staff members from various departments across the university have been involved in 15 challenge events in the community ranging from digging allotments and tree-lopping to painting a shelter for homeless people or making up promotional material for a charity that works to prevent teenage suicides. So far, these fabulous people have clocked up over 315 volunteering hours (that's 45 days!) helping out local good causes. Gives you goosebumps just thinking about it!

But let's not forget our other volunteers who regularly give their time to support very worthy causes. We've gathered a few personal stories together to show the range of activities that people take part in: http://www.dur.ac.uk/volunteer/volunteers/studies/

So, if you want to start volunteering and you know what you want (what you really really want), just holler and we'll see what we can arrange for you. Or  if you're looking to just dip your toe into volunteering, then why not round up a few chums and we'll tailor a challenge to suit.

C'mon in - the water's lovely!

Blogs away!

Welcome to the first blog from the Durham University Staff Volunteering team., where along the way we hope to be sharing our thoughts and stories about some of the wonderful and (let's face it) quite weird volunteering tasks that our staff members have got themselves into (if you're 'channeling' Laurel and Hardy right now, you're on the right track!)

We now have over 370 staff members taking part in all sorts of worthy causes, practical tasks and interesting opportunities. Just this week, we've increased our numbers to include staff members interested in taking part in environmental challenges over the summer with Durham Wildlife and the Countryside Agency.

One of the funniest tasks this week though was, without doubt, the wonderful ITS team who very kindly donated their time to make up craft packs for a local toddler group. The toddler group, based in Bournmour, was desperate for help to have someone put together a few craft ideas with templates and ready-to-glue- together shapes for a group of 20 pre-school children, for their art projects throughout the year. Putting them together can take up valuable time and resources for small groups, so having staff members volunteer their time to make them up was seized upon very quickly!

Armed with designs courtesy of our Volunteer Broker (and resident craft/handy person), the ITS team of 10 set about cutting out the templates for Peppa Pigs, Olly Octopuses, kites and Freddy Frogs. A couple of squabbles broke out - mainly among the men - about how long octopus legs should be, who had cut out the most puppets and who had the sharpest scissors.

But amidst the tinsel, glitter, crepe shapes and pom poms, the templates really took shape! Twenty packs of every design were produced in a lunch break - that's 160 octopus tentacles!

And, in context, the team volunteered over 10 hours of their time, over their lunch, to provide some very much needed support to a local group that delivers valuable childcare services to local families.

And of course, all you parents will instantly know about the time rule about these ...er lovely...objets d'arts: 1 week on the  kitchen table, 1 week hanging off the fridge and 2 years in the loft before you can fully dispose of them with a clear conscience. So, when little Johnny or Jilly runs home with a claggy, grubby mishapen octopus that would (if representative of the live creature) be probably just swimming in circles due to the disproportionate tentacle length, think on....it might have been designed at Durham University: by an ITS boffin or a doctor of very hards sums, no less...