“So, what’s a Labyrinth?”
“Isn’t that a book by Kate Mosse?”
“I thought Kate Mosse was a supermodel...?”
The rest of the KUSU staff look confused, as well they
might. We’ve just been explaining what our plans are for LSVF 2012, and this
year they include something quite unusual.
LSVF stands for London Student Volunteering
Fortnight. It’s a special event just for students in London, and the idea
is that lots of different universities put on “taster sessions” of
volunteering, and anyone from any of those universities can go to any of the
sessions- so a student from Kingston can go to a session put on by UCL, and one
from City University can come to Kingston.... it’s a great way to try
volunteering and meet students from other universities, get to see different
parts of London and try something new. It’s been running for a couple of year
now, and has been a great success (check out the photos of what happened
last year).
 |
| The famous Labyrinth of Chatres... come and make ours look as beautiful! |
So where does the Labyrinth fit in? Well, we know you guys
are busy people, so we’re also planning sessions on Campus. One of these is
going to be a Labyrinth-building session. Labyrinths have been used for
thousands of years by people from all over the world from Ireland to China,
Scandinavia to India, crossing cultural and religious boundaries. The idea that
walking a path round it gives you time to think and reflect, make decisions,
and exercise the puzzle-solving parts of our brain. Because it’s circular and
unending, and it’s something everyone can do, it’s also come to represent
inclusivity and community- which is why it’s perfect for volunteering. As part
of London Student Volunteering Fortnight, we’re going to be holding a Labyrinth
building workshop- everyone can volunteer to paint a stone to help build a
beautiful thing for the community to use, and we’ll be inviting local residents
and youth groups to come and try it out too.
If you’d like to get involved, you can just show up- it’ll
be taking place in the Quiet Room (next to the Prayer Room on Penrhyn Road
campus) from 6th -8th November. Bring your friends, classmates, lecturers,
housemates.... if you live locally you can bring your neighbours and family!
If you want to exercise your creativity, we’ll also be knitting
hats for babies in neonatal intensive care units in hospitals the day
before the Labyrinth building (5th November 12 noon-2pm in the KUSU
Offices), or if you prefer outdoors work, we’ve also got a day of conservation work
clearing invasive Rhododendrons at Kingston Hill campus on Saturday 10th
November.
If you fancy
something off-campus then there are lots of other events happening across
London- painting schools, gardening for older people, marshalling a
half-marathon: check out the events listing on the LSVF blog for more details and to book.
Right, time to go and order a very large dust sheet and an
awful lot of knitting wool....
Alex Britton and Jemma Houghton
KUSU Volunteer Coordinators
Alex Britton and Jemma Houghton
KUSU Volunteer Coordinators
No comments:
Post a Comment