The Thames River Clean – A Guide to Student-Led Volunteering

KUSU Sub-Aqua and Kayaking Club Volunteers

I am well known for my ideas of sheer inspirational genius. They are ideas of such intellectual brilliance that tiny mortals cower in terror at their mere suggestion. As a result, conversations in my club (Sub Aqua) often go a little like this;

Myself: “Soooo, Tom”

Tom (our beloved Diving Officer): “No.”

Myself: “Hey, I haven’t even said anything yet!”

Tom: “You’re right, my bad, go on.”

Myself: “I was thinking…”

Tom: “No.”

….and so forth.

In all seriousness, I had a good idea, possibly a great idea……but it was a tiny bit ambitious.

I have volunteered through KUSU Volunteering before and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I’ve helped paint a school gym and cut down Christmas trees etc and it’s been great….but. That’s been my problem. But….

You see I’m a SCUBA diver. I love diving. I love teaching it and I love the fact that from time to time, people even pay me to do it and what I really, really wanted, was a way to use my sport to do something... to make a difference, as well as shine some positive light onto KUSU.

So I had this idea. I’ve been underwater in parts of the Thames before – acting as a Rescue Diver for charity swim races, including Human Race swims and The Big Swim – and while I’d been under I’d often seen bits of litter and debris down there. So I figured that my club could put some divers into the water, pull some junk out and then bask in the praise that would be due us. After all, how hard could it be?

Quite hard as it turns out. Why I ask questions like that, I have no idea.

What I’m hoping, right now, as you read this, is that you’ve got an idea. An idea that you can’t quite bring yourself to suggest to people because obviously it’s crazy. Or an organisational nightmare. Or (shudder) might involve that most terrifying of beasts – whisper it, health and safety. So here is my advice to you;

Do it.

Volunteers from KUSU Netball, Ladies Football, American Football, KUSCO, KUBAG, Veolia and Thames 21.
Chris Elliott the student who created this project can be seen top row on the right hand side.

If I took nothing else away from The Great River Clean of 2012, it was this; that every time I found an obstacle that prevented me from going ahead, there was someone to help me past it. Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of work involved. It was an ambitious idea after all. But the simple truth is that if you have the enthusiasm and the patience to make your idea happen, then it can.

When I needed help slaying the health and safety Daemons, I was able to get advice from the British Sub-Aqua Club and from KUSU Volunteering Co-ordinator Jemma Houghton. When it turned out that I needed to write a Method Statement to get permission, Lynsey Stafford from Kingston University Biodiversity Action Group (KUBAG) showed me how (if you’re thinking “what on earth is a method statement”  then believe me, I sympathise). Surface cover on the river – the Kayaking club offered their support. Shore support? Thames 21, a local river cleaning charity offered us training, equipment and advice. When I needed help working with the council, Jana Bentley at KUSCO opened doors, as well as invited Veolia Environnement to provide both skips and manpower for the day. More manpower needed onshore – Susie KUSU Sports Co-ordinator mobilised assistance from the Netball, Ladies Football and American Football clubs. Diving equipment and transport needed; local Dive shop Aquanauts SCUBA and Snorkelling Centre provided. No parking available; the Royal Bank of Scotland the Co-Operative Bank and Hart’s Boatyard supplied. Private space to raise money for RNLI; the Ram in Kingston let us use their back garden. Problems, problems, problems. Solutions, support, assistance.

Bucket collection for RNLI. 

I’m not going to tell you that getting your idea off the ground will be easy. Maybe it will be, maybe it won’t, but it can be done. So take that first step. Head into the KUSU Volunteering office and say hello. We took an ambitious idea and with a level of assistance that frankly surprised a cynical Cornishman like me, made it happen. And if the two skips overflowing with junk don’t convince you, the photographs will.

Two skips full of rubbish pulled out of the Thames in Kingston

So many, many thanks to all those who helped in both the planning and the damned hard work on the day. To quote Joss Whedon “We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty”.

Blog by second year Kingston University student Chris Elliott.

Student-Led Underwater River Clean Volunteering Project!

Diving into the unknown depths of the River Thames, Kingston University students have quite literally pushed the boat out by organising Sub Aqua’s first underwater river clean.

It has taken 12 months to organise but the Kingston University Sub Aqua Club (KUSAC) has finally been given the go-ahead for the Thames underwater litter-pick.

On 17 September 2012, from 10am-5pm, trained members of the Sub Aqua diving club will be plunging themselves into the River Thames here at Kingston, in both a credible and exciting attempt to clean the bottom of our local river.

Their efforts are part of a nationwide campaign, The BSAC Underwater Litter Pick 2012, to remove litter from the waterways and coastline around Britain.

Previous litter-pick river divers have removed shopping trolleys, bikes and tin cans, all of which are dumped in rivers and pose a threat to marine and wildlife.

Chris Elliot, who is going into his 2^nd year at Kingston University has been leading on the project. He said: “I wanted to be able to find a way for our club (KUSAC) to be able put something back into the community.  An under-water river clean is something that our club has the skills and passion to do.”

Chris is running the project through ‘Be A Champion’, an Olympic-inspired initiative to get sports clubs involved in volunteering activities. Kingston University Students’ Union (KUSU) was recently granted silver accreditation by the National Union of Students (NUS) for its support of Olympic Inspired activity.

Sub Aqua has had to gain permission from various agencies such as the Environment Agency, Metropolitan Police and RBK Council in order to run the project but has also gained enormous support along the way.

KUSU Volunteering has supported Chris on his project from the outset offering expert advice and sourcing student volunteers to help on the day. Jemma Houghton one of the Volunteering Coordinators from KUSU Volunteering said: ‘I’m so proud of Chris. He’s worked extremely hard to get this project off the ground, juggling this Student-Led Volunteering project with his university degree course, working part-time and taking part in many other extra-curricular activities. We’re just keeping our fingers crossed for good weather now!’  

Lynsey Stafford, Biodiversity and Landscape Administrator in the Estates Department of Kingston University has also been heavily involved in the project, giving expert environmental advice and helping with the logistics of the project. Several volunteers from Kingston University Biodiversity Action Group (KUBAG) will also be helping out on the day.

Members of Kingston University Kayaking Club will have kayakers on the river bank protecting the divers from other boats on the water and members from Kingston University Netball Club will be volunteering on the river bank, collecting the waste and putting it in the skips. Jana Bentley, Head of Waste Management at KUSCO (Kingston University’s main service provider) has also been instrumental in her support of the project.

In addition to University support, companies and environmental authorities have offered their services. Veolia Environnement are providing two skips and will take the rubbish away for free and a couple of their staff will also be helping on the day. Thames21 are providing a range of equipment, including protective gloves and footwear, wheel barrows, litter pickers and high visibility jackets and Aquanaut are giving air cylinders to the project. The Royal Bank of Scotland and the Co-Operative Bank in Kingston are both very kindly lending one car parking space each and The Harts BoatYard are donating five car parking spaces on the day so that the students do not have far to carry their equipment to the river.  

Chris who has been scuba diving with the Sub Aqua club for three years and qualified as an instructor last year, said: “I’ve been overwhelmed by the support we’ve received from local groups and I’m very grateful and excited about the project.”

  

If you’re a Kingston University student interested in volunteering on this project then please let us know! We need you to help out on Monday 17th September, 09:30am-5:30pm and collect the rubbish the divers put on the river bank and deposit it in the skips provided. There will also be an information point on the river bank which we need volunteers to staff so that the general public can find out more about the project. 

Volunteer activities include:

• Collecting rubbish from the river bank and placing it in the skips provided.
• Collecting money for RNLI through a bucket collection on an information point on the river bank.
• Standing on an information point and talking to any members of the public who are interested about the river clean project.  

Skills needed: Volunteers must be enthusiastic, have good communication and team-working skills and be able to stand for long periods of time.  Please note volunteers should wear sensible clothing, but protective gloves, steel toe-cap wellington boots and other equipment will be provided. 

If you are interested: please email Volunteer Co-ordinator Jemma Houghton at Jemma.Houghton@kingston.ac.uk with your full name, KU number, and telephone number by 4pm on Friday 14^th September 2012.

All KUSU Volunteers who complete our registration process (only takes half an hour or so) can claim back their volunteer expenses! 

Alternatively if you're a member of the general public and want to find out more about the Underwater River Clean why not come along on Monday 17^th September 2012, 10am-5pm and see the Student-Led Volunteering project in action! There will be an information point situated in the back garden of The Ram pub opposite the river, KT1 1H. Several KUSU Volunteers will be running this information point, giving out literature, as well as raising money through a bucket collection for Chris’ chosen charity: RNLI – ‘the charity that saves lives at sea’.   

By Lauren Stopps KUSU Communications Coordinator

Vice President Activities of KUSU blogs about Volunteering!

Hi I’m Lauren McCormack and I am currently on a gap year from my Sports Science with Business degree. I have just finished my placement year where I worked full time as an elected student officer (Vice President Activities) of Kingston University Students’ Union where part of my job has been to oversee volunteering. I’ve also got involved in several volunteering opportunities throughout the year – here’s a quick recap of what I’ve taken part in and more importantly why you should consider volunteering too!

Working and studying full time can be very demanding on time, especially when there are deadlines/exams to prepare for. One-Off Volunteering is a great way to get involved in volunteering as you can do as much or as little as you like! I’ve done several one-off volunteering opportunities this year.

Back in November last year I went along with the sports students (known as the Kingston Cougars) to redecorate the sports hall at Waldegrave School For Girls, a local secondary school. 15 of us worked together to whitewash the wall and stencil silhouettes to transform the space – and it looked great!

In February I then took part in a food project for the homeless using waste food from supermarkets to cook at a local church in Kingston. Using food that was going to be thrown away we did a ‘Ready, Steady, Cook’ style day where volunteers and the homeless were split into teams to see what exciting dishes we could come up with! The day was part of Student Volunteering Week and was great fun - we all got to eat the food together afterwards as part of a big lunch in the church hall!

Most recently I went along to KUSU’s Bird & Bat Box Building and BBQ event where I helped make bird and bat boxes for the nature trail at Kingston Hill campus. The event also celebrated KUSU volunteers’ achievements over the past year. The BBQ food was cooked to perfection and we were really fortunate to have good weather – it was a great way to meet other volunteers too!

Volunteering with KUSU is a good way to try something new, meet new people, make new friends and also learn new skills while helping out and having fun. It also means you are able to do something worthwhile and productive with your spare time! I’m looking forward to doing more volunteering this academic year 2012-2013. It’s going to be a busy year and I can’t wait!

In March I was re-elected to do a second year as Vice President Activities where my role is to oversee sports, societies and volunteering in Kingston University Students’ Union as well as representing the student body. In terms of volunteering this year I’m hoping to run a project through the Be A Champion sports volunteering scheme where 5 volunteers from the mountaineering (climbing) club will lead sessions at a local climbing wall for a community group. As well as this I’m also hoping to go along as a kayak volunteer to the Sub Aqua Thames River Clean project during Freshers Week to help ensure they are visible to passing boats. I’ll be keeping an eye on the One-Off Volunteering opportunities that happen throughout the year too and am also hoping to become a regular volunteer with the Scouts through Community Volunteering at KUSU! There’s just so many opportunities that it’s hard to get the chance to do it all, but I’m trying to make the most of it while I’m still at Kingston University and when I go back into my final year next September!

E-mail: activities@kingston.ac.uk

Phone: 020 8417 2883 Ext: 62883

Twitter: @activitiesKUSU, @laurenmacca19

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=507326066

Volunteering at the Kingston Olympic Torch Relay!

I’m not, never have been, and most probably never will be a sporty person. Largely, excitement about the London 2012 Olympics has passed me by: at a push, I could probably be persuaded to watch the men’s diving (ahem), but golf? Archery? Football? Don’t we get enough football coverage on the TV as it is, without adding in some extra Olympiad games? Bah humbug, I say.

Anna Smith carrying the Olympic Torch through Kingston.
Spot the volunteers in their yellow t-shirts! 

Or at least, I did say. The Olympic Torch Relay made me prick up my ears a little, because it wasn’t all about the sport. 8000 everyday heroes were plucked from relative obscurity to carry the torch from A to B, to recognise and celebrate the fantastic work they have done in their communities or the successes they’ve achieved. So when I saw that I could volunteer through KUSU Volunteering, Go Kingston Volunteering and help marshal the event in Kingston, I figured it could be my contribution to this international sporting celebration that would really mean something to me.

So off I toddled, at 7.30am on a Tuesday morning (painful), into Kingston Market Place to meet with other volunteers, students and local residents alike, to help man the crowds and watch brilliant people be commended for their work. I was posted by the Bentall Centre, which was Anna Smith’s leg of the relay.

Earlier this year, Anna got home from work to find a neighbour being attacked by two thugs. Anna went to her rescue, saved the neighbour, but suffered a violent attack herself. She was in intensive care for a week before an intensive operation to rebuild her shattered cheekbones, nose and jaws. Her confidence was crushed by the incident and she had to move home. However, she chose to take a positive approach to life, joking that not everyone gets a free face lift and continuing to be an inspirational mother to her two young children.

Whilst she still needs some more operations, she has worked hard to regain full fitness so that she can return to helping others though sports activities. Reflecting on her time in hospital, she has been determined to do more therapeutic work to support people in need and has now successfully gained NHS sponsorship for a part time Occupational Therapy degree to build on her expertise and extend her skills for the benefit of others.

Anna's passion for sporting activities, her incredible determination following this horrific incident and the fact that she has used her experience to positively benefit others meant she was nominated as an Olympic Torchbearer. As the crowd roared their approval when she jogged past, lit torch proudly in the air, I began to understand that the Olympics was about so much more than sports. It’s about bringing the community together, promoting healthy, happy lifestyles, offering opportunities and celebrating diversity and equality.

And really, those four things are what volunteering itself is all about. It’s great to be a part of something bigger than yourself, and getting involved with all kinds of events and opportunities to make life better for others, just like Anna Smith did. 2012 is definitely the year to open your eyes to something new – for me it’s men’s diving, and who knows, maybe yours could be volunteering with KUSU!


Check out the rest of my photos from the day here.

Lucy Williams

Vice President Student Life at KUSU

http://studentlifekusu.wordpress.com

Volunteering with Sharks!

Blog by Kingston University student Chris Elliott.  
“So try to keep away from the sharks...” 

Well duh.

“...because if you corner them they might knock themselves out on the tank while running away.”

Er, what?

“But they aren’t that dangerous. The Southern Rays do have quite a dangerous Neurotoxin though...”

Ahah!

“Mind you they’re pretty relaxed around people. Simon trod on one accidently last week and it didn’t sting him”.

Oh.

“We’ve got twenty-six Lionfish in the tank too and they’re poisonous, but they just think you’re in there to feed them, so shoo them away with your brush if they get annoying.”

Right.

“Watch out for the Puffer Fish too. He’s not aggressive but he does have a strong beak if you get too close. We think he ate the Moray Eels.”

He....what?

“Any questions?”

Shark!

So here we are, it’s a Tuesday night at Chessington World of Adventures and students from Kingston University Sub Aqua Sports Club (KUSAC) are ready to help clean the Shark Tank.

Now when people find out that we do this they often ask two very sensible questions;

“They take the sharks out first right?

And when we answer no, it is usually followed by;

“Are you mad?”

Well... probably! I’m a SCUBA diver and a SCUBA instructor and us divers – well we love sharks.

FUN SHARK FACT

Annual deaths by shark attack: 5-15

Annual deaths by cow attacks: 100+

No Daisy, stop, no no no aaaaagh!!

But that’s the thing isn’t it. When was the last time you saw a show called “When Cows Attack”. Personally, I blame Spielberg.

So here we are looking forward to an hour or so of scrubbing rocks and washing the algae from the inside of the viewing windows. Partly so that we can be privileged enough to get close to these creatures, an experience uncommon for SCUBA divers in these overfished days and partly so we can help ensure that others can as well.

We change into our diving gear at the side of the tank – you must be completely covered for these sessions in case you brush up against a lionfish. On the side, we have first aid and emergency oxygen trained staff in case of problems. Inside the tank we’ll have each other to rely on and a brush to shoo stuff away with. It’s easy to be nervous. I’m pretty sure the US Army shark repellent isn’t a budget toilet brush from Wilkinson.

Cleaning the shark tank at Chessington World of Adventures

Once we’re in, we’ll be walking around the tank, as the tank isn’t very big and the finning makes the sharks nervy. It’s diving the way granddad used to do it. We get a few minutes to take underwater pictures and then it’s time to scrub, siphon and shine. It turns out that it’s pretty much the same as cleaning the fish tank at home - only bigger.

In the meantime we get to watch tropical fish shoal around us, watch Rays glide overhead and shoo away pesky Lionfish. The Horned Shark skulks around trying to get in the way and a Striped Moray Eel pokes its head out of a hole, alive for now and presumably scared that I might be a greedy Pufferfish.

It’s hard work, but someone’s got to be lucky enough to do it.

Kingston University student Matt in the shark tank at Chessington World of Adventures

Shark tank cleaning is open to members of KUSAC who are Sports Diver qualified (or equivalent) and higher.

Since the writing of this article, I can confirm that the Moray Eels are now all gone. May they rest in Pufferfish.

Jam, Jam Jam! Who'd have thought you could volunteer with jam?!

Neelam Shah

Hi everyone, my name’s Neelam and I’m in my second year of a BSc in International Relations with Media and Cultural Studies at Kingston University.

I recently volunteered at the ‘Jam Inn’ event which took place on Saturday 7^th July 2012 in Twickenham. It was a community engagement event for the Heritage community project ‘Jam Yesterday Jam Tomorrow’, which is being run by the Environment Trust for Richmond Upon Thames.

The ‘Jam Inn’ event turned the café at Heatham House into a vintage tea room which displayed research about market gardening in the local area. During the day I helped to serve tea and coffee, but my favourite part of volunteering was interacting with the public and talking to them about the heritage lottery funded project which explores the importance of Hampton market garden industry and the forgotten heritage of Twickenham. The purpose of the project is for the general public to learn about how to preserve and restore the lost plant heritage to sites throughout the area through archive research, oral histories and hands on activities. I really enjoyed volunteering because I felt like I contributed to the aim of the project.  

The day itself was fairly busy - I started off by handing out fliers to people passing by and encouraging them to go in and have tea, coffee and cake. Not many people came in at first because the weather was so lovely outside, but later on it got much busier and people starting sharing their market gardening stories. The children at the event loved it when they were taught how to make their own jam! The day was really fun and I look forward to volunteering again soon!

Collage Art Workshop with Kingston Young Carers – A Student-Led Volunteering Project

I’m Leo and I’m a final year Kingston University student. As a student of art and music, I wanted to apply my passion for the arts to volunteering. Over the past two years, I’ve volunteered my time and skills and organised several workshops for the Kingston Young Carers in Songwriting, Street Art, Drawing Cartoons, and most recently, Collage Art.

Leo and Kingston Young Carers showing off their collage art!

At the beginning of a workshop, I usually like to prepare a short introduction, which presents the children with examples, as well as select good music to play in the background (in this case Beach Boys, Pete Rugolo and a Honky Tonk Piano compilation). This gets their creative juices flowing and gets them more excited about wanting to make art. Throughout the workshop I ask each of them what they are creating and why, which helps them to engage more with their imagination and creativity.

For the collage art workshop, I had to buy art materials for the kids to use. KUSU Volunteering gave me a budget to buy these supplies with, which included books, scissors, glue and paper. Oxfam Bookshops in Surbiton and Kingston generously donated some of their books to the session. I made sure that I set up the room and supplies ahead of time so that it was all prepared when everyone arrived.

If you don’t find listed volunteering projects that are of interest to you, the kind staff at KUSU Volunteering (Volunteer Co-ordinators Jemma Houghton and Alex Britton) can provide everything you need to realise your own student-led volunteering project with full support! This way, like me, you can adjust volunteering to your skills and interests to effectively give back to the community.