On 9 July 2010, we had 9 volunteers from Bircham Dyson Bell who joined 200 volunteers from other organisations to help co-ordinate one of the ‘Community Games’ taking place in London ; we were assigned to the event taking place in Kensington.
The Games are a community driven event with local sports clubs in the area providing equipment and expertise on the various sports. Approximately 500 children from local schools attend the event, trying up to eight different sports on the day, some of which they have never heard of, let alone played before, and then of course there are the volunteers, also from local businesses who give their time to ensure everything runs smoothly and that all of the children are included and enjoying themselves.
The roles the volunteers could take on this year varied from Team Captain and Team Coach to Scorer and Trouble Shooter. Each role had its own responsibilities but everyone is there to encourage, support and inspire the children so that they get the most out of the day and hopefully they will find a sport that they would like to continue with in the future.
The sports that took place on the day were Touch Rugby, Cricket, Volleyball, Yoga, Basketball, Football and Goal ball! Our volunteers took on a variety of roles, some responsible for leading teams of up to 15, 9-10 year olds, ensuring they were in the right place at the right time, some were coaching a game (they had never played before themselves) and our Senior Partner even took the role of Trouble Shooter, helping to coordinate the whole days events with the organiser from Sport Inspired. We were also included in a record breaking attempt (which we’re still awaiting the outcome of) and so our volunteers also had to show off their own coordination skills while the children taught us the moves to a dance routine they had learnt earlier!
The day was rewarding for all, the children thoroughly enjoyed and wore themselves out (some were asleep before the day was over) and overall, the volunteers helped to mentor, encourage and inspire hundreds of young people to become more active and interested in team sports as a way to have fun, keep fit and meet new people. Sport is rewarding in more ways than one and hopefully the local sports clubs who took part will also benefit from increased memberships and interest in their local clubs.