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Christmas is always a festive time of year particularly for children. So why not volunteer to help at a Christmas grotto. There are some places in the country that get funding for free Christmas Grottos so any help as well would be appreciated you could help serve tea and mince pies to the families, help wrap the gifts or dress up as elves or even polar bears to add to the experience for the children, and you’ll have a lot of fun as well!

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A lot of schools really appreciate volunteers to help in class, and helping children to read, spell and write brings a lot of fulfilment as well! It’s also quite an experience seeing how schools have changed since you had attended one, such as what they are learning about now.
Some schools still have nativity plays at Christmas and also need help getting all the children ready so that the nativity can start on time, so parent volunteers are always appreciated to help get the children ready for their performance!

Why not organise an awards ceremony for people that live in your area to acknowledge their achievements. It could be for people that have made a big difference to your area with their volunteering, or young people who have really made a difference in the community. You may be able to apply for money towards the event to help with costs. Then you just need to find a venue, send out the invitations and be creative in how the awards will look! It would be a brilliant event to commemorate those people that have worked so hard to make your area a better place to live in!

Often when you look back on life, things you’ve done to help other people seem poignant, so how about helping people more needier then you, people that have no warm home to go back to at the end of the day.

 In some areas groups like the Salvation Army go on soup runs to help the homeless giving them warm drinks, soup and food and extra clothes so that they can keep warm. They are always grateful for more volunteers to help make the soup and to give everything out. It’s also so memorable to meet some of these people and talk to them about their experiences.

There are a lot of people out there who really love their gardens. Sometimes though it gets a bit too much for them to handle and sometimes they cannot get down to the ground to do the weeding and keep the garden looking as lovely as it had once been. Sometimes these people may not have family or friends that are able to help them out, and this can be a stressful time not being able to maintain their garden.

Why not do a bit of good in your community. You could design a poster or some flyers, where people that cannot afford to pay for a gardener and are unable to do their own gardening can contact you. A few hours tidying up a garden, doing some trimming and getting rid of the weeds, mowing the lawn, could make so much difference to someone, giving them a beautiful garden that they can admire once more!

Tea Dances happen in a lot of areas, where the elderly get together for a dance and sometimes tea and cakes during the interval. Why not go along volunteer and see what you think, you’d be surprised how much you enjoy it! The people are lovely, and they love to dance with the younger people and show them how it’s done! You’ll learn a lot from the waltz and quickstep to sequence and square dancing!

By volunteering to help on a holiday I mean helping the holiday makers to enjoy themselves on their break. The break can mean a lot to the holiday makers to escape their normal routine. The break can make a lot of difference to the families of the holiday makers as well.

Charities all over the place organise these holidays usually during the summer. Depending on the charity the children could be from disadvantages backgrounds, so the holiday can give them a chance to try new activities like horseriding and canoeing. The children could be disabled so your role as a volunteer would be as a carer for that child so that they are able to participate in activities. These holidays though depending on the charity can vary in the size of the group either small, such as 3 holiday makers, or big, such as  around 15 not including volunteers. Depending on the charity and the holiday, they can be also cater for all ages.

 One charity that I volunteered to assist on a holiday for was for deafblind adults. The activities were centered around what the holiday makers wanted to do, so if they wanted a lie in, to go swimming and have a relaxing day followed by a long bath, that’s just what they did! It’s a totally new experience but you get to know everyone in your group so well, and as well as the holidaymaker enjoying their holiday, you have an amazing and unforgetable time as well! I would really recommend it as a worthwhile way to spend a week during the summer!

Why not organise a day for children in your area to come and have some fun! You could write to companies to ask if they could donate some money towards the day in return for advertisement, or you could ask for prizes or any other donations. This is so that the day can be mostly free for the children.

The day could include a climbing wall and inflatables like sumo suits or a bouncy castle, it could include donkey rides, face painting and nail painting. Our fun day also included a story tent, drum workshops, live bands and music, and a variety of stalls like hook a duck, guess the weight of the cake and the name of the bear etc. Don’t forget to have stalls for food and drink at the event as well. At ours we had a cake and sweet stall, a drink stand with fizzy drinks as well as plenty of water, a panini stand and a BBQ, there was also lots of space for picnics. Also think about where the nearest toilets are, and if necessary hire out facilities.

It’s a great event to organise and run on the day, and brings  a lot of fun and enjoyment for others too. Don’t forget to enlist the help of others too though, it would be a difficult event to run on your own!

We may all be respectful when on the beaches ourselves, putting our rubbish in the bins, but not everyone is. Seeing beaches covered in litter isn’t a pretty sight and not a photo you would take home to show off your holiday!

With this in mind, how about helping out for a couple of hours at a beach near you? Often, volunteer groups will organise and advertise days when they will gather together to tidy a beach. Obviously there will be rules on picking up certain things like glass, but everyone will get gloves and bags and it would be a lovely thing to look back on and think how you’ve made a difference!