Mary is a first-year Economics student who tells us about her first time being involved in volunteering. It was during one of our November Social Hackathons, where she participated in a day-long Hack to come up with tangible plans on how Ronald McDonald House Charities UK could throw Christmas parties to its residents in its four London houses. Some were restricted due to the pandemic, others were on tighter budgets, and volunteers were tasked to overcome such challenges.
Tell us a little about your volunteering!
I participated in a Social Hackathon last term. The Hackathon was actually the first time I took part in volunteering. It was a one-day event on the first day of Reading Week, working together with Ronald McDonald House Charities UK, a charity that provides temporary accommodation for parents whose children are hospitalised. At Christmas, it is even worse to be away from home and to have your children in hospital. Our task was to develop a Christmas party plan for the parents and the children to lighten their holidays – all with a limited budget. I was allocated into a team of three and, we spent the day brainstorming activities, programmes, and decorations that we wanted to be part of the Christmas party plan. We also researched how much it was going to cost us, planned how many people we were going to need, whether we were going to recruit any volunteers and if so, what time the event was going to be, and so on.
How did you find out about the role?
I subscribed to the Students’ Union’s Volunteering mailing list so that I would receive emails from the Union on a regular basis. In one of the newsletters, there were many events listed, so I clicked onto each link and looked over the descriptions to see whether I was interested or not. I think what attracted me to this specific opportunity was that it was a one-off thing. Other opportunities required regular time commitment, and I was unsure if I had time for a long-term project in which I needed to meet with some people regularly. But this one was perfect because you just needed to dedicate one day, and it was during Reading Week when I did not have classes anyway.
Why did you want to become a volunteer?
I've wanted to do something similar for a long time. I wanted to give back to the community and society. In my previous schools, I couldn't find a lot of opportunities like this, unfortunately. Nevertheless, I really enjoy using my abilities to help others and support those who need it. Apart from looking at the Social Hackathons, I have also been looking into other opportunities, for example, tutoring. I really want to be a teacher in the future who goes to remote areas and teaches kids there. In China, where I come from, there are many programmes like that. But while I am here, I thought I would take part in other forms of volunteering activities because overall, they all have the same aim: to help others, do something good, and give back to society.
What difference do you feel you’ve made by volunteering?
Although it was on Zoom, everyone in our team was very passionate about this project. They gave their best, and that enabled us to approach the Hackathon problem from different perspectives. Personally, I am a logical planner, so I was able to help out with planning efficiently. I structured how we were going to approach the problem, while the others were a little bit more creative, and they came up with the ideas of what while I was thinking about the how. We all just threw in different ideas hoping that our ideas would inspire others. And at the end, we came up with this whole plan that was very thorough, creative, and within the budget.
[Editor’s note]: around the time of our interview in January, the Ronald McDonald House Charities UK team has just emailed with a run-down of what happened at the Christmas parties across the four houses. You can view them here under the heading ‘Partner Progress: The impact we’ve had’. Mary was incredibly pleased to hear that her and her team’s ideas were implemented to bring joy to the residents of the Houses during the holiday season. Natasha Brame, our main contact at the organisation said to share the following with all our volunteers "you were a huge part of our Christmas celebrations, and we couldn't have had such wonderful parties without you."
"You were a huge part of our Christmas celebrations, and we couldn’t have had such wonderful parties without you."
Natasha Brame, Ronald McDonald House Charities UK
What impact has volunteering had on you?
In terms of skills, I think my communication and teamwork skills were strengthened by working together with strangers. Overall, time and resource management were also super-important. We had to allocate the tasks between us, decide who oversees what, set deadlines for ourselves, and so on. These skills I developed are really helpful as I know that teamwork or management skills are essential in many careers and jobs.
I also learned a lot from other groups’ presentations. For instance, our team focused on planning everything precisely and providing an hour-by-hour breakdown of our programmes. In contrast, other teams put in a lot of creativity, and for example, designed lovely Christmas cards. We used a picture from a website and did a little designing, but theirs looked unique and pretty. So, I think it was great to learn from each other and see what other people deem important. In the end, the organisation could mix our plans to organise the perfect party.
Then, on a personal level, it was just great to work together with such friendly people. For example, one of our teammates had something to do during the day, so he had to be excused for about an hour. But his attitude was great because he said he did not want to burden us, so he swapped that one hour for his lunch break, and he worked during lunch to bring everything up to speed. And stemming from this, I guess I also gained two friends in the process. Our group was so harmonious, and you could see this at the end because when everyone was giving their presentation, the other groups referred to each other as ‘colleagues’ and ‘co-workers’, but ours was saying ‘friend’. Although it was only a day, and we barely knew each other, there was just a connection. So, despite the Hackathon being online, it was a brilliant opportunity to make new friends, and this just proves to me that volunteering can be fun and enjoyable. It's not only about us helping other people but also the process benefiting us.
What’s the best thing about volunteering?
Well, for me, it would have to be meeting new people who have the same interests as me and who want to use their abilities and skills to do something nice, just like I do. I think volunteering is a great opportunity to meet like-minded people with who you have a lot in common. I think this is the main thing that will make me come back to volunteering. But, then, on a larger scale, it’s having a positive impact on society. Meeting people and feeling a sense of fulfilment from the day’s achievement. Knowing that what you have done is something good, I think, motivates most people.
And the most challenging? How did you overcome the challenges?
I think the biggest challenge would be working with strangers. At the very beginning, we are unfamiliar with how each of us does things, and it might not work out. I know people do things differently and at a different pace, and they prioritise things differently. In the beginning, we spent quite a lot of time getting ourselves on the same page and making sure we all agreed on certain things. Of course, we would have different opinions on certain things, so we had to navigate that, and that was a big challenge. But after we conquered this initial challenge, everything became a lot smoother.
Tell us about something memorable that’s happened to you whilst volunteering
I think my favourite moment would be a little irrelevant to the volunteering itself, but it made the whole experience so much greater. When we were about to join the main room, and everyone was saying goodbye to each other in breakout rooms, we quickly exchanged Instagram accounts with the others and used the last 5 minutes to chat about ourselves. One person said that he loved bubble tea, so we planned to go out together to get one. This was just a really happy ending to an otherwise already great day.
Would you recommend volunteering? If so, why?
Yes! I think people don't actively lookout for these types of opportunities because they don't realise what an influence they could make – even in just one day. Nor me or my team-mates felt like we were sacrificing a lot. And this little effort went such a long way, still! For us, it was just a couple of hours from our day, but for the charity, it resulted in this marvellous plan on how to move forward. Volunteering is such a great way to give to people in need with not too much effort, really – this is what people need to realise, I think.