Vol Week Prizes
The weather forecast was dreadful but it didn’t seem to put anyone off and the Volunteers’ week event in the centre of Newcastle on Saturday 6th June was a remarkable success, especially considering how many other attractions the event had to compete with.

The ‘launch pad’ containing the Volunteer Centre team, Ouseburn Valley Volunteers, the Vinvolved team and some of their youth Action team was located at the top of Grainger Street near to the Monument where a lively rally against the BNP was taking place. Meanwhile, round the corner in Northumberland Street, Newcastle Libraries were holding an event that included a furry dinosaur!

However, despite the competition and the lack of sunshine, the enthusiastic Volunteers’ Week crowd still managed to attract their fair share of attention, engaging with over 250 people who were interested in talking about volunteering and giving out over a hundred leaflets about volunteering for young people aged between 16 and 25, as well as a huge number of leaflets about the 5 steps to wellbeing through volunteering for people of all ages.

Current volunteers also visited the ‘launch pad’. Some were presented with their Volunteers’ Week certificates and thanked for their on-going contribution. All of them were encouraged to enter their names into the Volunteers’ Week prize draw organised by the Volunteer Centre in conjunction with the many organisations they work in partnership with.

Neil Watson an Ouseburn Valley Volunteer sounded as though he had fun during Volunteers Week in particular on the Saturday.

“It’s such a wonderful place and I’ve met lots of lovely people [the public]. That’s what you get out of bed for. I wanted to come here to help people and meet people. I’m improving my people skills. It’s the most successful day of volunteering I’ve had so far.”

Well done to everybody who took part.

On Friday 12th Heather Niven the CEO of Newcastle Society for Blind People agreed to support our “Thank You” Draw by being our official independent name puller!

Volunteers from the following organisations won the prizes donated by John Lewis,Lush and the staff of CSV

1. Newcastle Advocacy Service (John Lewis)
2. Community Living Independent Project (CLIP) (Lush)
3. Ron Eager House
4. Outlook x 2
5. Ouseburn Valley Volunteers x2
6. Oxfam Heaton x2
7. North of England Refugee Service
8. Mencap
9. CARE Home Project x2
10. National Trust – Inner City Project
11. Samaritans Tyneside
12. Henshaws
13. The Mentor Project
14. DAN – Develop Autism Now
15. West End Refugee Service
16. Victoria Tunnel
17. Virtual Volunteers
16. Mining Institute Library
17. Comfrey Project

Thank you very much to both John Lewis and Lush who continue to support our requests during Volunteers Week.

When I told the winner of the John Lewis voucher she said - “Fabulous – what a brilliant start to a Monday morning”

So thank you to all 289 people who entered their name into the draw from the Volunteer Centre Newcastle team.