Giving back in so many ways!

This week is National Volunteers Week -something we mark every year. We have two contrasting & inspiring stories of our people and how they give back.

Dan is King of the Castle!

We start in the North East. With a tale involving Dan, who Oaklea support in County Durham. Dan – as well as being quite a well known person Oaklea supports – has been volunteering for many years.

VIP treatment – sitting comfortably!

He was invited to a special event to celebrate volunteers by Durham County Council

Patricia Lee, Team Manager at Calstock, near Seaham.

“Our Dan is still volunteering with Durham County Council, once a week at a local leisure centre in Seaham doing meet & greets and other people focussed tasks. As a result he was invited to Raby Castle near Darlington for a day out to celebrate Volunteers Week. On top of this – Dan also does other voluntary work at a garden centre run by the Shaw Trust in Seaham. He’s a very busy man!”

The event at Raby involved

• Guided tour of the Castle
• Afternoon Tea (Dan can get used to this Patricia…no pressure!)
• Exploring the Deer Park (and the famous Black Deer)

Patricia adds: “The event was arranged by Volunteer & Workforce Development team at Durham County Council. Dan has been volunteering once a week for Durham since 2018. He is currently working at Seaham Leisure Centre as a culture and sport volunteer – here he meets and chats with customers and helps in the gym cleaning the equipment and he really enjoys it. Dan also works at the Shaw Trust garden centre in Seaham twice a week and the image above is of Dan helping to paint the small wheelbarrow planters.”

Without whom – Big joust out to Gemma Nightingale from Oaklea who acted as his true ‘Lady in Waiting’ at Raby Castle!

Into the wild we go

While Dan is giving his time as a volunteer….Thao Nunns in our Corporate Finance Team is engaging with her community in a different way. She is involved with a walking group for women – “Wonderful Wild Women“. Thao runs a regular hike called ‘Weekday Wander‘. She tells us how it all came about;

“So I started this group around one and a half years ago in South Lakes after taking many of my friends out for easy walks and they totally enjoyed it. They then mentioned that they would never imagine how beautiful it is just walking along the valley. They always think that they’re not fit for getting out for a hike as need to go up the mountains and don’t even know where to start.”

From a simple idea – making new tracks

“So I created weekday wander to encourage the Mums or any Women out there who is not confident to get outside, don’t know where to start and just enjoy the outdoors. You don’t have to be fit to get outside, just step out of your door, walk to the river, woodland, any outdoor spaces near you that would help you mentally and physically.”

Make time for well-being

“The walk is every second Friday of the month within school hours so people can fit in, get a bit of time for yourself before the chaos of kids club and other jobs. We’ve been all over place in the Lake District – from Troutbeck Tongue, up to Elterwater, round to Loughrigg, up to the scenic valley of Langdale and more. So many friendships made and many women now can get outside with their friends or by themselves which I found it so rewarding and so happy to do something good for the community.”

You wait for 1 awareness session outdoors

Today (5 June) is also World Environment Day (United Nations) -it is celebrated annually on 5 June and encourages awareness and action for the protection of the environment. It is supported by many non-governmental organizations, businesses, government entities, and represents the primary United Nations outreach day supporting the environment – so Thao and friends fit nicely into this and their environment!

What’s stopping you – Get volunteering

Find out about giving your time to Oaklea (and Right2Work CIC) here https://www.oakleatrust.co.uk/volunteering/ Plus find out about National Volunteering Week here https://volunteersweek.org/ Plus more on World Environment Day https://www.worldenvironmentday.global/

Go ahead – volunteer – you’ll be as happy as our Dan & have a real sense of achievement!

Dan the Man with shed -Update from Dan 20th June!

Well here’s a lovely surprise down the garden path – we managed to catch up with Dan making the most of the sunshine (He’s that busy volunteering he’s hard to pin down LOL!) – here he his telling us about the event at Raby Castle and his volunteering exploits!