Getting together to celebrate community
Festival showcases and promotes family volunteering
Around 2,500 flocked to King’s Park at the weekend for a family day to mark the city’s Festival of Volunteering.
It was part of a week–long festival focused on volunteering and building strong communities.
Saturday’s programme at King’s Park featured a host of free activities including bubble football, water walkers, bungee trampolines, bouncy castles and a silent disco.
Over 30 organisations and charities also took part in the event, ranging from Transition Stirling to Trossachs Search and Rescue. The event was also supported by Police Scotland Youth Volunteers, who handed out over 750 goodie bags to families.
Chief executive of Volunteer Scotland George Thomson said: “The family day is all about connecting people and building strong communities.
“We recognise that people aren’t just interested in individual volunteering opportunities, many are looking for ways the whole family can get involved in helping out. It was great to see so many families getting together on Saturday to celebrate volunteering, find out more about getting involved and back the city’s bid to become European Volunteering Capital in 2020.”
Stirlingshire Volunteering Enterprise’s VolRocks activity was a huge hit with youngsters. Rachel Johnston, development and engagement coordinator for SVE, said: “The children were particularly keen to get involved in painting, hiding and finding rocks to help us raise awareness of the voluntary sector. It was so popular we ran out of rocks. It’s fair to say this year’s festival has been incredibly successful and we look forward to building on this in coming years in order to raise the profile of volunteering even further.”
The event, which ran from September 19–25, also attracted more than 1000 people to a series of events, from conferences to celebrations including a 15th anniversary afternoon tea for SVE’s Supported Volunteering Programme.
Natalie Masterson, chief executive of SVE said: “It was lovely to see so many past and present volunteers, organisations and supporters turn out to acknowledge the impact that this project has had on so many people’s lives. Having the opportunity to listen to personal accounts from the volunteers themselves was particularly inspiring.”
The Festival drew to a close yesterday (Tuesday) with a sold out youth conference at the Tolbooth. The event looked at ways to create a more inclusive future for youth volunteering in Scotland.