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...
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...
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