Volunteers

I've had a busy day today.  I popped in to the Saturday coffee morning held every week in our local church hall.  Each week is organised and staffed by a different charity - this week it was the local Welsh Society.  After that I had a chat and a coffee with some friends and fellow members of the local branch of the Royal British Legion, to discuss arrangements for this year's Poppy Appeal.

After lunch I did a quick litter pick along the roads and footpaths between our home and the middle of town, including the hospital car park which we walk through - something I try to do each week as one of the local "Litter Champions" organised by 'Keep Wales Tidy'.  Then I spent  a couple of hours in Sainsbury's supermarket collecting for the Marie Curie Nurses, who do such a fantastic job in caring for cancer patients and their families.

In the evening I was part of the choir singing at a concert to raise funds for Hope House, our local children's hospice, and also for a local lunch club / day centre for the elderly.  It was a very well attended concert, with all those performing giving their services free, and it will have raised something in the thousands of pounds, I very much hope.

It's unusual for me to do so many different things with a charitable focus all on the same day, and I list them now not to draw attention to myself in any way (after all, in the main I was only playing a bit part in proceedings!), but to highlight how absolutely essential all those masses of people who volunteer are to our society and to each local community - including all those with whom I was in contact today.  So much caring work is done by volunteers.  So much vital fund-raising is done by volunteers.  And those who go week by week to events like our coffee morning also play their part.  Many of the people I met and chatted to today are, I know, involved in not just one but many different bits of charitable work (if you want something done, find a busy person, they say).  Probably, most people don't know just how much volunteering these generally unsung heroes do.  Well, I am happy to sing their praises here, and to hope that others will join them and make sure their work continues and grows.