Volunteers’ Week is an annual celebration of the contributions people make throughout the UK by volunteering in their communities. This year it runs from June 1 to June 7.
It is human nature to feel good after helping someone out. Volunteering can also help you boost your confidence and gain valuable new skills and experiences. As well as helping others, volunteering has been shown to improve the volunteers’ wellbeing too.
There are so many opportunities to volunteer in Rye and the surrounding villages. Over the next few months Rye News is going to highlight some of the amazing work being done by a huge band of helpers who work so hard quietly behind the scenes.
If you are a volunteer or run a group of volunteers we would like to hear from you and highlight the work that you are doing or are part of. Please send an email to ktbaspect@gmail.com and tell us a bit about your work with contact details so one of our reporters can meet you for an interview.
This week we are highlighting the RNLI at Rye Harbour. All the crew, both shore and boat, shop workers, fundraisers, press officers and launch authorities are volunteers who are on duty 24/7 and 365 days of every year. Pagers go off in the middle of the night and during the day and within minutes there are enough crew arriving at the boathouse to launch the boat and help save casualties on the water.
Volunteers are vital to the RNLI’s success: they make up over 95% of its people. Supporters are inspired to donate towards the lifesaving work because it is carried out by people who give up their time to do extraordinary things.
Martin Geldart, one of Rye Harbour’s newest recruits explained why he got involved with the charity: “I joined the RNLI seven weeks ago having just completed four years at an independent lifeboat station. Being part of a lifeboat crew, whether you are shore or boat based, is enormously rewarding and is one of the most exciting and fulfilling volunteer roles you could do. I joined the RNLI for their professionalism, their world-class training, their high-spec equipment, and their respect for their volunteers’ safety and well-being. During my short time at RNLI Rye Harbour I have been made to feel very welcome and everyone is very helpful. I already feel part of the team and I look forward to progressing with my training.”
Image Credits: Kt bruce .