Volunteers’ Week celebrated its 25th anniversary with more than 380 events taking place throughout the UK to recognise, reward and recruit volunteers, many organised by Volunteer Centres.
The range of events and activities was awe-inspiring. Volunteers were thanked at award ceremonies, tea parties or in more unusual ways, such as a free pampering sessions, fashion shows and sponsored fire walks. Meanwhile, special Volunteers’ Week red buses toured around cities, encouraging new recruits to get involved in volunteering and taster sessions enticed yet more people to see how and who they could help.
We were pleased to discover the wide range of types of groups and individuals which got involved.The web site boasted entries from everyone you could think of, from universities to Volunteer Centres, and from colleges to private companies doing their bit to highlight the role played byvolunteering across the UK.
Groups posted details of their events on our What’s on section of the website, so that everyone could see what was happening, where and provided opportunities for members of the general public to get involved.
This year’s special anniversary was marked by a celebration event at Twickenham Stadium on Wednesday 3 June hosted by Volunteering England. Volunteers, charity partners and sponsor National Grid joined the former Minister for the Third Sector, Kevin Brennan and former England cricket captain Mike Gatting who spoke about the important role volunteering played for sport groups such as the England and Wales Cricket Board.
