Blog: 'Volunteering is about giving something back'
The English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) website features a blog post every Friday through the year.
June's theme is volunteering. This week, Mandy Broadbent, a volunteer from Bolton who works with the Lions Club International, discusses the upcoming Typhoo National Junior Athletics Championships in Warwick.
Mandy’s blog:
In a day of sport, Lions will typically help out providing lunches, handing out water to athletes, and we always have an information tent on site telling people who we are and what we do. We’re always very hands-on and visible.
I have been part of the Lions for over 25 years, and I have been a volunteer for 15 years.
Lions Clubs are the world’s largest voluntary organisation, serving the community in a whole variety of different ways. We work with the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS), looking to provide hands-on volunteering support, as part of our health and wellbeing work.
We have a partnership with EFDS, and have had for 26 years, formally for the last six. EFDS, like other national sports associations, are helped by us volunteering during their Championships. And we also like to make a financial donation towards the costs of running the event, particularly the National Junior Athletics, which this year are in Warwick.
Volunteering is about giving something back, or at least that’s why I volunteer. I like the heavy side of work, and I enjoy working with young people as that’s my background.
Volunteering for the Lions gives me an opportunity to do almost anything I want, because we have such a broad remit. If I wanted to visit and help in a disaster zone I could. If I wanted to help on the ground in my local community I could. And if I wanted to raise money for a local, national or international cause I can. It’s limitless.
Volunteering is essential within society. We couldn’t exist with the paid sector alone.
Volunteering gives something in life that is an opportunity to do something outside paid work that I want to do. And it allows you to work on different initiatives and meet a whole range of people.
When it comes to Warwick, we hope to provide around 30 Lions volunteers on each day. In terms of our financial donation, we expect it to be over £7,000.
We will be wearing an emblem on our t-shirts, our Lions badges or fluorescent tabards. You'll be able to spot us in the stadium!
You’ll see us helping out on lunch stalls, helping the judges with their marking, or supplying drinks to participants.
We’ll have a Lions tent at Warwick, full of information about what we do. It will be manned throughout the event. People should come over to us and say hello!
Read more about the Lions' work here. This weekend hundreds of young disabled people take part in the Typhoo National Junior Athletics Championships in Warwick. Follow the news on this website.
