We're never too busy to give back
As part of the Pass On Your Passion campaign, we spoke with Lindsey, who had the desire to volunteer in her community but struggled to finding the time to do it.
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We’re all busy nowadays, with seemingly endless responsibilities, and smartphones bringing the world to our fingertips, it seems impossible to find time for anything else.
This was exactly the challenge Lindsey faced. She wanted to improve the health and wellbeing of her local community in Burnage, Manchester, by setting up a parkrun, but was worried about how much time she could commit to it.
With work commitments and family responsibilities filling her plate, she was unsure how realistic taking on more would be for her. Despite her uncertainty, Lindsey decided that it’s important to make time for things that you value, after all, everyone’s busy!
Lindsey’s parkrun journey
After deciding to jump in feet first, she looked at what being a parkrun Event Director entailed, and quickly realised that there were aspects she could share and streamline. She also looked at her life, and where she spent her time and realised she wasted a lot of it, particularly on social media.
Having decided to go for it, she discovered that it wasn’t as time consuming as she feared, and it definitely helped having a small team of volunteers with her on the journey. It also helped her become more organised with her time, so it actually wasn’t as time consuming as she feared.
She did have to make some sacrifices though, her Saturday morning lie-ins had to go but that was a small price to pay.
Her love of helping her local community and seeing the participants make progress week on week made it more than worthwhile. And organising parkrun turned out to be much more appealing than housework! It has also helped her self-worth to know that people are improving their health and she is playing a part in that.
In Greater Manchester we’re working to become the most inclusive and accessible parkrun region, hoping to get more people taking part and volunteering across the region. If you’re interested in volunteering at a parkrun event, or at something else drop us a message online here.
If you've been inspired to start volunteering within your community, but don't know where to start, fill in our form here and we'll help you start your volunteering journey.
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