Red Cross Blogs

Posts tagged ‘Volunteering’

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When I was little, I used to accompany my mother as she shook a collecting tin during various charities’ flag weeks. I remember enjoying it, as we always saw lots of friendly faces and I was happy to be part of Mum’s fundraising efforts.

With this in mind I asked Sam, my five-year-old son, if he wanted to come and help me collect for Red Cross Week last weekend. He seemed pretty keen, so we off we went to our local high street in Chesham, armed with our collecting box and stickers.

Having confused him in the past with explanations of what the Red Cross does, this time I kept it simple: “We’re raising money so the Red Cross can help people.”

“So do we get to keep the money?”

“What do you think?”

Point taken.

We took up our position next to the market. As he is under 16, Sam’s not allowed to hold a collecting box. So it was his job to say ‘thank you’ and give out the stickers. He looked up and down the street hopefully. “Why hasn’t anyone given us any money yet?” he asked, after precisely thirty seconds.

But soon the coins started to jingle into our box. “One, two, three…” Sam counted as people came over to make their donation. He gave up after five, but seemed pleased with his job of giving out the stickers. He even remembered to say ‘thank you’.

I was also happy to be there. I usually feel a bit self-conscious when collecting, but Sam’s company made the time pass quickly. And Chesham’s residents were generous. A couple of people put tenners in the box. One nice man said he’d found £10 the day before and decided to give it to the next charity collector he saw.

After an hour, Sam was getting restless. When he started performing acrobatics on a traffic barrier and striking monster and alien poses, I decided it was time for his Dad to come and pick him up. I stood there for another half an hour but have to admit, it wasn’t nearly as much fun.

In total, we raised £53.64 – not bad for an hour and half’s volunteering.

Read about other ways people have been raising money for Red Cross Week.

Find ideas for fundraising with children.

Find other fundraising ideas.

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Words can do a lot of things, but they’d struggle to describe the look on a Red Cross volunteer’s face when he returned from a weekend away to find his home completely transformed.

John Drudge was the happy victim of Channel 4’s You Deserve This House! programme, which gives surprise home makeovers to people who spend so much time helping others that they haven’t any left to put into their own homes.

How did they do it? John was tempted away for a weekend at a local country club, believing this was his treat for being a community hero – but it was all just a ruse to get him out of the way.

And when he arrived back home, the cameras were on hand to capture his gobsmacked reaction to a refurbished study, new-look rooms and – best of all – a hot tub in his garden so huge you could open it as a public pool and charge for entry.

John’s wife had told the programme makers that her husband – who’s a big guy – liked nothing more than relaxing with a whisky in his old tub after a long, cold night’s volunteering. So they found a new model that was so massive, it needed an enormous crane to lift it over his entire house before it could be fitted.

Needless to say, the hot tub has been a big hit.

John, from Godalming, is a fire and emergency support service (FESS) volunteer and spends hundreds of hours each year – day and night – helping those who’ve been caught up in a domestic fire.

Donna Taylor, from the Red Cross, put the 64-year-old forward for the television programme. She said: “John has spent so much time helping so many people, in so many different ways. He truly deserved this special treat.”

You Deserve This House will be screened on Channel 4 at 11am on Friday 16 March.

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Forget about Ryan Gosling – move over, Emma Stone. According to our very scientific research*, it appears the key to having a successful and sizzling Valentine’s Day is getting your paws on a Red Cross volunteer.

Not convinced? Just take a look at the following evidence, which clearly demonstrates how having a Red Cross volunteer as the special man or woman in your life will unfailingly spell out romantic bliss:

Good with money
With half the country drowning in debt and maxed-out credit cards, Red Cross fundraising volunteers are a good bet. They regularly start a day with empty pockets, then – by virtue of shaking buckets or abseiling off a building – end up with hundreds of pounds.

Fabulous mouth to mouth
Lots of people rate themselves as good kissers but, other than first aiders, how many people do you know who spend hours practising on a plastic dummy to perfect their technique?

Magical massage
Pity the masses who, asking their partners for a romantic Valentine massage, either get an annoying tickle or kneaded like a human-sized lump of bread dough. Therapeutic care volunteers are carefully trained to provide the perfect soothing massage. Ah, just a little to the left…

Sensible shoppers
Many men fear their partner’s return from the clothes shops, anticipating the filled bags and empty purse. Not so the lucky chap who lands a Red Cross retail volunteer. Despite helping to raise millions each year, she knows all about value and spotting a bargain.

Not couch potatoes
Many women resent being sports widows, silently fuming while their loved one sprawls on the sofa scratching his backside and watching hours of fascinating football ‘punditry’. However, event first aid volunteers get their sports fix by actually attending the fixtures and helping people. And that, girls, means you get the sofa, telly and fridge contents all to yourself for a relaxing afternoon. Cheers!

Brilliant detectives
The one fly in the ointment, unfortunately. No matter how hard you might try to lose your parents-in-law, any half-decent Red Cross volunteer with links to the tracing and message service will probably be able to find them again.

So, we hope you agree, on the whole the case is irrefutable. Ryan can keep his washboard stomach and Emma is welcome to her charms. If you want a truly special Valentine’s Day, make sure you spend it with a Red Cross volunteer.

*We asked four people in the office.

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Guest post by Heather Fitzke, British Red Cross youth delegate to IFRC General Assembly in Geneva, November 2011.

“It is often said that young people are the future of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, but I feel that is only part of the story. Young people are the Movement’s driving force here and now, and are the world’s best hope for real and lasting behavioural change at the community level and beyond.”
- Bekele Geleta, IFRC Secretary General.

Making the Right Impact
This quote may seem like a beacon of praise in a sea of downright gloomy reportage on young people. Young people are often presented as THE problem, or as passive victims of a sinking financial and social system from which there is no hope of recovery.

As a volunteer for the British Red Cross I know that there is another side to this story.

In the UK around 6,000 volunteers under 26 dedicate their time and talents to helping the most vulnerable in their communities. Our volunteers take action when they see someone in a crisis and, rather than accepting the status quo, they are being the change they want to see in the world.

The importance of volunteering was a dominant theme throughout the General Assembly in Geneva last month, which I was lucky enough to attend as the British Red Cross youth delegate. Volunteerism is the cornerstone of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and each National Society is only as strong as its volunteers.

The British Red Cross policy of enabling young people to volunteer across all our services makes us almost unique within the Federation. And it meant that I was interrogated by youth delegates from other National Societies who were fascinated by our distinctive structure!

I was more than happy to oblige and told them about all the different ways that young people contribute to the British Red Cross.

Opportunities for young people
Young people are involved in first aid, emergency response, health and social care, refugee services, peer education, preparing for disaster, retail and fundraising projects such as Dance: Make Your Move. Young people can develop essential skills through internships and work experience, and participate in decision making at all levels through initiatives such as SMT Takeover, Red11, and Red100.

As Ashanta Osborne, Chairperson of the Federation Youth Commission, stated in her closing speech: young volunteers “need an enabling environment to be involved in service planning and decision making” to maximise their contribution towards our joint humanitarian goals

This is why the Youth Commission has been mandated to support and improve the regional youth networks, so that we can share ideas and come up with solutions to the problems we encounter in the course of our volunteering. For example, the European Union Red Cross Youth Network (EURCYN), which is made up of over 30 countries, has written a position statement on migration which will be used to inform work with vulnerable young migrants in Europe.

Connecting for Change
The position statement could not have been written without the dedicated young volunteers who have developed innovative and effective programmes to respond to the risks and vulnerabilities that young migrants face. By using their creativity and connections through social media the network has come to a powerful consensus on what the issues are and how to address them at the EU level.

Social media goes further than facilitating partnerships. It is also used to “inform, inspire and educate” (Bekele Gelata General Assembly 2011) young people all over the world, and is a powerful tool for us to pass on our humanitarian message.

So, go on a Facebook friending spree or Twitterthon and share your ideas, experiences and views with other Red Cross volunteers, and together we can spread our message of humanity and peace across the world.

Find out more about volunteering for young people.

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It’s not often that someone who’s late on their first day at a new job finds themselves being warmly patted on the back as they arrive. But then Paul Bodman’s new job was with the Red Cross – and he’d just spent the night volunteering for them.

Que, you ask? Let me explain: Paul volunteers for the fire and emergency support service (FESS), which involves being on-call a few days each month. That means, if someone gets caught up in a house fire or similar incident, Paul and his team – equipped with a specially adapted vehicle – will respond around the clock.

Which is exactly what happened at four am on 11 November, a few hours before Paul was due to start his new job. Undaunted, he raced to the scene and found the shaken occupants of four households – seven adults, five children and six pets – who’d been forced to flee their fire-damaged homes.

The FESS volunteers provided fresh clothing, comfort and useful advice on making insurance claims. Then they stayed at the scene until they were absolutely sure everyone had somewhere safe and warm to go to.

Paul (27), from Keynsham, has been a FESS volunteer for nine years, but was recently appointed to help co-ordinate the Red Cross’ event first aid service in Avon. He said: “As a FESS volunteer you get used to being out late, but it was quite interesting to have a call-out on my very first day in my new job. I was an hour late but my new boss let me off for good behaviour!”

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