National Volunteer Week is Australia’s largest annual celebration of volunteering, taking place from May 15-21.
This year’s theme is The Change Makers, recognising the contribution of volunteers around the country and encouraging others to consider volunteering.
Kingston Park parkrun, which takes place every Saturday at 9.00am at Kingston Park, has been a volunteering success story since it launched on August 21, 2019.
During that time, 238 different people have volunteered at Kingston Park parkrun, carrying out a combined total of 1289 different volunteer roles.
The volunteers have supported 2879 (over 300 on one Saturday recently) people to complete the five kilometre course on 17,598 occasions.
Volunteer Event Director at Kingston Park parkrun Matthew Roadnight said “Everyone in the community is invited to give parkrun volunteering a try”.
“parkrun is all about having fun in a relaxed and welcoming environment.
“All the volunteer roles are super simple and there are a wide variety of opportunities, from welcoming first timers to marshalling on the course to handing out finish tokens as people finish the 5k.
“We even have volunteers during the week, for example who coordinate our volunteer roster and post on our social media channels.
“Our volunteer roster is never full and there is a role to suit everyone!”
Kingston Park parkrun is one of 470 parkruns across Australia, with more than 143,000 different people volunteering at the free weekly events since the country’s first parkrun in 2011.
A recent national survey of almost 38,000 Australian parkrunners revealed that people who volunteer experience significant health and wellbeing benefits.
99 per cent reported that they volunteer to feel a sense of purpose, while 93 per cent said it makes them feel part of their community.
If you are interested in volunteering, you can email the event at kingstonpark@parkrun.com, message them through the Kingston Park parkrun Facebook page, or simply come along on a Saturday morning.
