Student Volunteering Week 2013

Monday 11th February - Saturday 16th February 2013  

     

Student Volunteering Week (SVW) is a nationwide celebration of student volunteering, which has traditionally taken place each spring. Now in its 12th year, SVW brings together organisations from all sectors to promote and celebrate the volunteering efforts of students across the Universities and Colleges in the UK.

SVW 2013 will combine local campus focused events and campaigns with a national media profile and high-level events. We will be celebrating the positive difference that students have made, and continue to make, on campus and in their communities – wherever they might be.

KUSU Volunteering will be putting on a whole host of volunteer taster sessions for Kingston University students (and staff!) to take part in during SVW!

If you’ve never volunteered before, this is the perfect chance to try it out! There’s decoration-making, a French Day at Age Concern, orchard conservation at Kingston Hill and hat-knitting for babies!

SVW KUSU Volunteer Taster Sessions:

Decoration-making!

When: Monday 11^th February 2013.

Shift: 12noon - 2pm.

Location: KUSU offices, Penrhyn Road (next to Space Bar), Kingston upon Thames, KT1 2EE.

Aims: KUSU Volunteering is running a “French Day” for the elderly at Age Concern Bradbury Centre on Tuesday 12th February. We need volunteers to come and make decorations to help brighten up this event! Think French Flag bunting, paper-chains, Eiffel Tower decorations etc! 

Volunteer activities include:

-Making French-themed decorations. 

Skills needed: The ability to have a go! Please note KUSU Volunteering will provide all arts and crafts materials, as well as a few templates!

Interested? Drop in anytime between 12noon-2pm on Monday 11^th February.

French Day at Age Concern Bradbury Centre!

When: Tuesday 12th February 2013.

Shift: 12noon - 3pm.

Location: The Bradbury Centre, (opposite Knight’s Park) 37b Grange Road, Kingston upon Thames, KT1 2RA.

Aims: KUSU Volunteering is running a “French Day” for the elderly at Age Concern Bradbury Centre on Tuesday 12th February 2013. We need volunteers to help with the following activities to make the event a success: French Quiz, French Bingo and a French Lunch!

Volunteer activities include:

-Helping set up

-Serving the French lunch

-Organising the elderly into teams for the quiz and helping with the quiz

-Helping with French bingo

-Taking photographs of the activities

-Chatting to the elderly

Skills needed: Volunteers must be patient, kind, friendly and able to chat to older people and treat them with dignity and respect. Volunteers must be enthusiastic and be able to follow instructions in a busy environment. If you can speak French this is an added bonus. (Please let us know if you can!)

Please note volunteers can eat the French lunch as well!

Interested? Please email Jemma Houghton at Jemma.Houghton@kingston.ac.uk with your full name, KU number, telephone number, and the volunteering event title by 12noon on Thursday 7th February 2013.

Orchard Conservation at Kingston Hill!

When: Wednesday 13th February 2013.

Shift: 12:30pm - 4pm.

Location: Dorich House, 67 Kingston Vale, Kingston upon Thames, SW15 3RN.

Help our beautiful old and new orchards at Dorich House flourish this spring with some essential maintenance tasks now. Plus, hear from an expert about the soil food webs underpinning it all. Check out last year’s blog about the event:http://kubiodiversity.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/22-01-11-dorich-house-orchard.html

Deadline: For more information and to sign up, please contact Rachel on biodiversity@kingston.ac.uk by 9am on Monday 12th February 2013.

KUSU Registration Session!

When: Thursday 14th February 2013.

Time: 1pm – 2pm.

Location: KUSU offices, Penrhyn Road (next to Space Bar), Kingston upon Thames, KT1 2EE.

Come and register as a KUSU Volunteer if you haven’t already! Registration involves meeting the KUSU Volunteer Coordinator and learning about the rights and responsibilities of volunteering. Once you've registered you can claim back volunteer travel expenses, have access to our free training opportunities, attend our socials and receive a certificate of achievement once you've started volunteering! More information about the registration process can be found on the Get Involved part of our Website.

Knit Hats for Babies!

When: Friday 15th February 2013, pop in anytime between 1pm - 2pm. 

Location: Students' Union Offices (next to the shop and Space Bar), Penrhyn Road campus, Kingston University.
What: KUSU Volunteering will be running a knitting session to create hats and blankets for sick and premature babies in hospital special-care units. If you can knit or crochet, come along, create a hat and share your skills –if you can’t knit, we can teach you!

Do I need to book? No, just show up!

Other News - Student Volunteering Week Photo Competition!

NUS and Student Hubs are aiming to gather 365 photographs in an e-book: one for every day of the year - of students giving their time and energy to making a positive difference in the world around them.

They want these photos to demonstrate as many different volunteering activities as possible, accumulating in a brilliant visual display showcasing the huge impact that student volunteers have in their local community and further afield. 

Plus if that’s not enough if your photo is judged to be the best display of student volunteering you’ll win a day with a photographer to help you create professional images showcasing your volunteering or charity work. If your image is of volunteering overseas you’ll be asked to nominate a charity of your choice to receive the prize in the UK.

To submit your photos email them to info@studentvolunteeringweek.org.uk with the following information by Tuesday 19th February 2013:

-Name

-Institution you’re studying at

-Email and phone number

-Short description (no more than a couple of sentences) of what your photo shows

To be eligible for the prize the following criteria apply:

-The photograph must be of a student volunteering activity, either taken in the UK or internationally.

-A current FE or HE student studying during SVW 2013 or a student volunteering centre must submit the photograph.

-The photograph must to be student’s own work or the student must have permission to submit the photo from the photographer.

-The deadline to get your pictures in is 19th February 2013.

Other News - Student Volunteering Award

Kingston University Student Volunteer Chris Elliott made it into the national top ten shortlisted by NUS and Student Hubs for his outstanding contributions to student volunteering! Chris was nominated by KUSU Volunteering for his Underwater River Clean Project, Try Dive Project and one-off volunteering! Check out the top 5 students shortlisted for theStudent Volunteering Award. 

Jemma Houghton
KUSU Volunteer Co-ordinator

Just Dive In!

My name is Chris Elliott and I’m a 2^nd year Computing student at Kingston University. I’m also a member of the KUSU Sub Aqua Club, where I teach as an Instructor. As a club we’ve been branching out from our main activities of training students and have begun trying to find ways to do something positive for the community. 

Our big project last year was the Underwater River Clean, where, with the assistance of several other clubs as well as KUSU Volunteering, Be A Champion funding and outside agencies, we were able to pull off a great event. But we’re not done yet. Another idea we’ve had going is to run taster sessions for local youth groups etc. In diving circles, we call them “Try Dives”.

Our club runs a Try Dive every time we start a training schedule, usually at the start of each Semester, for our brand new recruits, but obviously it was going to be a little different if we started to teach potentially much younger people. What we needed was a Try Dive where we could get some young people involved but could rely on them to be kind to us (for that you can read behave!).

Getting ready!

So I approached the Commanding Officer at 328 Squadron of the Air Cadets – Kingston’s Squadron, to see if they might be interested. I chose the ATC because I was a Cadet and a member of Staff there many years ago and I figured they might be a good fit. The ATC is an organisation that, while it promotes the Royal Air Force, is also about providing training and leadership experience that will be useful in civilian life. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the Air Cadets and this was a chance to put a little back.

Underwater!

The C.O. of the Squadron was keen and we soon organised a day to meet at New Malden leisure centre where the Try Dive would take place. Members of the Sub Aqua Club met up there early on the day so we could prep and talk through what we’d be doing in the pool.  Our Diving Officer Tom was keen for us to teach a couple of basic skills in the water and then have some fun with the Toypedoes provided by the KUSU Volunteering department and some of the pool toys supplied along with the equipment by Aquanauts, our local Dive shop.

I am OK!

The session itself went really well, with us splitting the cadets into small groups and getting all of them into the water at once. I taught the Squadron Adjutant and his son, doing some basic skills like Mask clearing, Reg recovery and DV retrieval. The rest of the session, we played catch with the Toypedoes, swam through hoops and did loops underwater. Both the Cadets and our own club really enjoyed the experience.

Swimming through hoops!

Running the session helped us to learn a lot about how we ran the sessions and how we might need to do it differently next time. I particularly enjoyed seeing the young people getting to try out a sports activity that they wouldn’t normally get the chance to do and seeing how much they enjoyed it. 

Group photo!

Christmas Presents for Local Children's Hospice

Your lovely donated gifts!

We hope you all had a lovely break over the Christmas and New Year period! To celebrate the start of 2013 we thought we’d blog about the very kind gifts Kingston University students and staff donated at the end of last year to Shooting Star CHASE.

Each year KUSU invites students and staff to donate toys and gifts to local charities that need them. This year gifts were donated to Shooting Star CHASE. This charity cares for local families with a child or teenager with a life-limiting condition. They currently help over 600 families living in western London, Surrey and West Sussex. They provide nursing, advice, practical help and emotional support. Their services are available 365 days a year, and families receive their support free of charge, in their own homes and communities and at two children’s hospices.

Thanks to your generosity KUSU had to make three(!) trips to drop presents off at Shooting Star House Children’s Hospice in Hampton. The gifts were used at the hospice, for kids staying over the Christmas period, and by their staff when they visit families at home and were very much appreciated.

Thank you to everyone who donated something! The quality and number of gifts was incredibly high this year and you really helped to make a difference to local families in need.

Jemma Houghton and Alex Britton

KUSU Volunteer Coordinators

http://www.kusu.co.uk/volunteering

The London 2012 Games.... Part 3

The London 2012 Games.... Part 3

The third and final installment of KUSU Volunteer Sara Ann Hope's Olympic diary.

                                                                                               ~

Getting to meet a hero: Sara with comedian and 2012 Games champion Eddie Izzard

Sunday August 12^th, Shift 11: 8am – 12.30pm

This has just become the best day of my entire life. I haven’t lived my whole life yet, but I doubt it will get better than this… I just met Eddie Izzard! Eddie Izzard, who I have idolised since the age of twelve, just came into my office and thanked us all for what we’ve done. He is the very reason I volunteered in the first place and there he was, shaking my hand.

I still can’t believe this has been real. It doesn’t get much better than this.

~

So, there you have it. London 2012 from the perspective of someone who lived it.

Yes, we had reservations – people weren’t sure it would work, or it would cost too much, or we wouldn’t win anything. But when it came down to it, we delivered!

I saw so much enthusiasm and happiness in those two weeks, and all in a city that is famed for its rejection of social interaction unless absolutely necessary.

The world came to tea this summer, and boy were we ready for it! I can honestly say this is the best thing I have ever done… amazing to think when I only applied because my mother told me to.

So London 2012 was such a success I’m planning to volunteer at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014. And all this from someone who is scared of sport like most people are scared of spiders.

Who’d have thought it?

~

The London 2012 Games... Part 2

The London 2012 Games... Part 2

It's time for the second installment of Sara Ann Hope's 2012 Games diary (missed the first part? Scroll down to read it!)

                                                                                ~

Friday August 3^rd, Shift 5: 6am – 2.30pm

Amy lost the key to the cupboard full of keys this morning. It was like searching for a needle in a stack of needles, only less… pointy.

Got sent home sick from shift today which wasn’t very fun but on the plus side did get to watch a commentator try to talk about a volleyball game between Germany and Germany. He resorted to saying ‘brown-haired Germans’ and ‘blonde Germans’ just to differentiate.

This is seriously one of the weirdest jobs I’ve ever had- and I’ve worked with small children.

Saturday August 4^th, Shift 6: 2pm – 11pm

Checking the Volley Ball Stadium doesn't blow away!

 Left monitoring two venues again today as we have the Men’s Race Walk on The Mall. Race Walk – the only race you can win by acting like a duck. It was extremely distracting trying not to laugh.

Today I learnt how to calculate wind speeds so that the volleyball court doesn’t blow away. It may seem silly but as it’s only a temporary venue we have to be careful it doesn’t get too bad and do a ‘Wizard of Oz’. Shame about it being temporary but I kind of see the point – the Prime Minister probably wants his garden back.

Amy found an incident in today’s log noting injured wildlife found at another venue - A pigeon named Harold sadly passed away at 11.45am. He clearly lived long enough to be named though so it’s not totally depressing news. Like I said, weirdest job ever.

I wish you could have seen the VCC’s (venue Control Centre's) reaction to Ennis and Farrah winning their races. The place went mental!! Naturally we had cake and chocolate to celebrate. Very pleased I got to share the moment with other people and not just alone in my flat.

Sunday August 5^th, Shift 7: 5pm – 1am

Shift off to a great start as I set off all the metal detectors and have to be frisked by one of the soldiers. Forgot to remove my belt buckle like a complete fool – still at least it shows our security teams are on the ball.

Only four shifts left now! Can’t believe it’s all going so quickly.

Bit of excitement in the VCC tonight as we are all put on blue alert after a bomb scare. Some idiot from the newspaper grabbed his bag as it was going through the X-ray machine and ran off into the night pursued by several burly policemen. He didn’t get away with it for long and we all cheered as we saw him get frogmarched back to the checkpoint on the CCTV.

Nothing malicious to report, but still quite exciting behind the scenes here. Made even better by the fact that no one except us knew what happened – We are just THAT good at our jobs, haha.

Modelling the Games Maker uniform waterproof!

Tuesday August 7^th, Shift 8: 1pm – 9pm

Prince Harry was in the house tonight – though I suppose it was to be expected as we are kind of working in his granny’s back garden.

Also had David Beckham, with three cute little boys in tow- as opposed to Harry’s decidedly un-cute and frankly rather terrifying army of body guards.

Wednesday August 8^th, Shift 9: 4.30pm – 11.30pm

MIKA performed today and as the only one in the VCC who knew who he was I was the only one singing along. Not even going to pretend to be embarrassed because I GOT TO WATCH MIKA!!

Tea was a cheese and appleslaw sandwich. Who is doing our catering, Heston Blumenthal?

Saturday August 11^th, Shift 10: 1.30pm – 8.30pm

Clare Balding replied to my tweet today inviting me along to Greenwich Park to say thank you for my work. She’s invited loads of the GMs to say thanks live on air which would be totally amazing. That and of course I’d get to meet Clare Balding who is fantastic, win/win.

Yet more sweets and ice cream today – think once I’ve finished I’ll go into immediate sugar withdrawal.

Just the Women’s Race Walk and Men’s Marathon to go… I don’t want to go back to reality!

                                                                    ~

Come back for the thirds and final installment of Sara's Olympics Adventures next week- same time, same place!

Blast from the Past: The London 2012 Games.... part 1.

The London 2012 Games.... part 1.

December: it’s cold and gloomy outside. It seems a long time since the sunshine and excitement of the London 2012 Games, doesn't it? Well, the legacy’s certainly not over- lots of people who enjoyed volunteering then have kept it up.

Regular blog readers might already know Sara, who’s an enthusiastic volunteer and received the KUSU Volunteering's ‘Best Newcomer’award last year. Well, over the summer she volunteered as a Games Maker with the 2012 Games. Her report’s so exciting we couldn’t ask her to cut it down to just one blog post, so it will appear in three parts over the coming weeks...

Sara with the Olympic Torch

London 2012 – My Olympic Games- Sara Ann Hope Part 1

I don’t know whether any of you noticed some stuff that went down in London over the summer, you know, a little something called THE OLYMPICS!

I jest of course. You can’t have been in the country over those months without being bombarded with Olympic fever. For most people, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity that they’ll tell their kids about for years to come.

And where was I you ask? Well… I was there!

I was chosen along with seventy thousand other volunteers to be part of the Games Maker team, helping to make London 2012 happen. You may have seen us running around in our very stylish purple shirts, (made from recycled plastic bottles in case you didn’t know.)

I was a Data Loggist based at Horse Guard’s Parade and The Mall (right in the centre of things, near Buckingham Palace) for the full two weeks of the games, and here’s a bit of what I got up to…

~

Saturday July 28^th, Shift 1: 3pm – 1am

17.45pm – First shift going well. I have “wisely” been left in charge of both venue logs, since the previous Loggist went off shift just after five.

Cavendish abysmal in the road cycling and the female fencers didn’t even make the semi’s! On the upside the rowers were both quite successful... and attractive.

Not quite sure what my job here actually is… is this bad?

01.00am – First shift over. Tired but happy, going home on the tube. Still not sure what my job is but I seemed to do it quite well so I’m counting that as a win. Spent a lot of time staring blankly at the monitors as people refused to do anything unsafe for me to write down… so selfish!

Sunday July 29^th, Shift 2: 3pm – 1am

16.00 pm – Marginally more successful start to today, as I now know what my job actually is… I think. Also, I brought both a book and a phone today so I plan to spend the frequent hours when everything is running smoothly reading about feminism and playing angry birds.

20.00pm – It’s apparently a good thing that I have nothing to write down – means the venue is operating at peak performance. So much so in fact, I just got to go into the stadium and watch some Beach Volleyball! It was possibly the weirdest sporting event I’ve ever seen. The crowd did a giant Mexican wave and formed a conga. Every so often people jumped onto the sand and we all had to dance the Macarena. MAD! I loved it though, made me feel very patriotic… despite the fact that I’m British and the match I was watching was Netherlands vs Spain.

Beach Volleyball in action

Went back to the venue control centre to find a lot of cake lying around for us to eat. I do enjoy the night shift.

02.00am – So tired! Walked home past the Ritz hotel today and the doorman waved at me. It’s amazing how friendly everyone is when they see you in uniform – a man yesterday with a brilliant moustache stopped me in TESCO and commended me on doing a fantastic job. It’s made London a much happier place to live!

Also, TEAM GB’s FIRST MEDAL WAS WON AT MY VENUE!!! Alright, so it wasn’t me who won it but I’m smiling like it was…  the atmosphere’s pretty electric here at Venue Control.

Tuesday July 31^st, Shift 3 – 5.30am – 3.30pm

10.00am – Not off to best start as I missed the last night bus and didn’t make it in until 6am. Didn’t actually matter in the end as the office I work in doesn’t open until half past and they only wanted me in this early to give me breakfast… No, I’m not quite sure why that’s necessary either, but it was lush so I don’t think I have a right to complain.

Talked to two people today – very enthusiastic lady at the bus stop, and a nice old chap on the tube (also a GM.) If we succeed at nothing else with these games they’ve certainly got London talking!

Wednesday August 1^st, Shift 4 – 3pm – 1am

 GB medals still pouring in, brilliant! Also met the third Loggist, called Dick, today. Lovely man – very organised.

Venue control filled with sweets again. Is it obvious the games are sponsored by Cadbury’s? Though to be fair if I get fed another Nature Valley bar by catering I may scream.

We’re out of the volleyball by now and it’s a little disheartening being surrounded by about fifteen screens all showing your team losing. The CCTV does sometimes come in handy though – last night I saw three men dressed as dinosaurs coming out of the venue. And tonight one drunk guy tried to put his coat on and accidentally punched his mate in the face. It’s the little things that make the job worthwhile!

                                                                     ~

The next installment of Sara's Olympic Diary will be out at the same time next week!