SVW 2015 - Matt's Blog

8:15 - It's Student Volunteering Week! There was a little snow earlier but hopefully everything will still go ahead today - I'm particularly looking forward to the compliment cards, free hugs and police dogs!

10:15 - Just helped set up and everything looks good to go! There's Julian House vouchers for sale, Good Deed suggestions and more!

11:45 - I've been in the library spending some time working on my submission for The Bath Award which is helping me to think about how my voluntary experiences have given me useful skills - strongly advised for any volunteers but the final deadline for this year is coming up very soon! I'm just about to go outside, get involved and see how everything has been going so far!

15:25 - Had a great day handing out some crazy compliments and giving free hugs and Good Deed suggestions! Despite periods of snow earlier, there's been sun too! The best part of today was definitely the great societies providing entertainment - BUSMS, BREAK and Capoeira! We also seem to have sold lots of Julian House vouchers and made a big impact despite the cold weather! The addition of background music this year has also been great!

17:15 - Exhausted after coming home and now getting ready for Scouts this evening!

23:50 - Back from a great evening at Scouts - we ran another night of bases where each patrol was with a different leader running a different activity including knots, pioneering, first aid and whittling. My patrol went through badges including the new badges that have been introduced recently and activity badges they could achieve from what they do outside of Scouts. We also went through the different people/things that charities support, how you can help charities and why people volunteer! It was good to note that my patrol this week came up with lots of reasons but one was surprised that I wasn't paid! We also finished with a game and had a new Scout! Although shy at first, he said he really enjoyed it and is keen to continue which is great!

My highlight of the whole day, however, must have been hearing the Cubs, who meet before Scouts, performing a song Naomi (Assistant Cub Scout Leader and also a student) learnt during her time in Africa which contained lots of animal noises!

After Scouts, the leaders discussed the need for another Assistant Scout Leader, the Night Hike I organised last Friday for the Scouts and just generally caught up with each other. I also got to take the Scout Mascot, Andy the Anteater, home!

Tuesday: Disability Awareness Day

7:40 - Today I have lectures 9am to 4pm so apart from walking past the library from lecture to lecture, I won't be able to tell you how things are going on campus during the day but you should expect to see a variety of different activities including a blindfold obstacle course as well as Guide Dog puppies! Again, we will be selling Julian House vouchers, having already sold quite a few yesterday! Hopefully the weather will be a bit better today for all the volunteers!

16:05 - Finished a few lectures early today so had time to stroke the Guide dogs! I also got lots of free hugs en route from one lecture to another! According to the Project Leaders, it was a good day and they seem to have run out of compliment cards and have sold even more Julian House vouchers!

20:50 - Another tiring day comes to an end. This evening I ran an Info Session for the team leaders of the Big Spring Clean, a great volunteering opportunity on Saturday, going through how everything will work and the details of each route so that they were confident they knew what to do to make sure the event is a success! You can still sign up to volunteer for the Big Spring Clean here: http://www.bathstudent.com/volunteer/opportunity/136/ 

Wednesday: Environment Day

8:50 - Unfortunately today I'll be missing all the fun on campus which includes environmental activites as well as Bath FoodCycle and Skipchen! Instead, I'm just about to head off to St. Mark's Community Centre in Widcombe, where V Team host the Community Ceilidh in April, to help decorate the venue - I'll be looking after a team of about 10 volunteers to hopefully do lots of painting and anything else that needs doing!

22:50 - So this morning I went to do some painting at St. Mark's Community Centre which was lots of fun. Unfortunately, there weren't as many volunteers there as we had hoped for but we still managed to get lots of things done and a few more volunteers turned up in the afternoon. It was great to meet some people in the loal community and also to enjoy a delicious free lunch! After that, I went to FoodCycle where I was Head Chef for the night. FoodCycle turns waste food into a 3 course community meal for those living in food poverty. Tonight we ended up having a fair amount of fruit and veg but no bakery. Our menu ended up as stuffed mushrooms with sweet potato mash for starter, mushroom carbonara for main (we had lots of mushrooms this week!) and caramelised fruit salad and shortbread for dessert. I think it was probably the best dessert I've had at FoodCycle - really delicious! FoodCycle is always lots of fun, especially because of the amazing volunteers and guests. This week we were joined in the kitchen by both a student from the Netherlands who wanted to volunteer whilst on holiday and someone from Skipchen (who had been up on campus earlier in the day)! 

Thursday: Campaigns Day

18:10 - Today there were lots of different groups supporting our campaigns day including the British Heart Foundation, Oxfam, the Politics Society, Amnesty and fundraisers for our international volunteering projects to Romania and Nepal. It was great to see it so busy! I've just finished meeting with some people organising RAG's Paris Hitch. Having been heavily involved in office cover the last two years, this year I'll be leading the office cover and hopefully there will be a sign-up to volunteer for that coming soon! We discussed some of the issues in past years and what was involved in the process.

Friday: Social Isolation Day

22:35 - A long tiring and busy week means I've again struggled to update this blog regularly! Last night, I went to a Film Night organised by fundraisers of V Team's two residentials to Romania and Nepal. It was great and afterwards I met some friends in town so it was a pretty relaxing evening. Today, was social isolation day and so this morning I was handing out wrapped-up back copies of the Big Issue whilst we had busking and yet more free hugs and Julian House voucher selling. There were also charities up on campus today including a speed friending session in the careers centre with Age UK. Unfortuantely, I didn't get to see much of today's on campus action as I went to the Volunteer Centre AGM, where I was officially made a Trustee of the Volunteer Centre! It was a great event with a cooking challenge - two French chefs cooked up a couple of fantastic dishes with the help of two volunteers in the space of an hour whilst there was a discussion about food waste. There were many people I had met before there including councillors, my fellow trustees of the Volunteer Centre, my fellow volunteers at FoodCycle and a host of other people from charities, some of which I have had contact with in the past. It was an excellent event and afterwards I headed back up to campus to meet some friends and enjoy a bit of the Cycle Cinema as part of Go Green Week (the same week as Student Volunteering Week). I'm now just about to get some sleep before our two big weekend opportunites to finish off what has been a fantastic week!

Saturday: Big Spring Clean

9:50 - Today is the day of the Big Spring Clean and I've just been familiarising myself with the route I'm leading later today.

23:55 - The Big Spring Clean today went really well! Despite having less volunteers than we originally hoped for, we managed to have a big impact! My group met at the bridge over Oldfield Park station and we spent a long time picking up all the litter along the alleyway parallel to the trainline. We had all sorts of litter from bottles and take-away packaging to more unusual things like old cushions and a pair of broken scissors! Some of my fellow volunteers were really surprised by how much they enjoyed it and how addictive it can be when you have a litter-picker in your hand! After an hour and a half, we made it to the Abbey where all the routes I made ended, coming from 6 different starting points! I'm now looking forward to tomorrow's Bath Half!

Sunday: Bath Half Marathon

16:20 - So today was Bath's biggest fundraiser, the Bath Half! We had lots of students running for various charities including Cry In The Dark (the charity we work with for the Romania Aid Trip) and RAG's Big Four. Other student volunteers were stewarding or cheering on the runners along the way! Meanwhile, I was up early this morning to meet my Scouts and walk with them down to our spot on the Bath Half course. After a few relay rces to get the Scouts warmed up (and a bit of hail too), we were in our positions. Every year, the Scouts hand out Lucozade to the runners whilst the leaders move packs onto the tables and cut them open so the Scouts can do their job easily. Unfortunately, I had a moment of carelessness and cut my finger open when trying to close a pen knife! I'm hoping that it won't take too long to heal but it's quite a deep cut! Despite this, everyone had a great time! One of my Scouts was overjoyed when they gave a Lucozade bottle to Russell Howard and everyone enjoyed seeing Rodoula, my Assistant Scout Leader, pass by whilst running the Bath Half to also raise money for the group! Although the Bath Half is a really good fundraiser for us, the Scouts go again and again partly because it's fun but mostly because they get to take home as much Lucozade as they can carry (some certainly struggled this year with the carrying part!)