This is my 4th blog about my placement year at London 2012 Olympic legacy charity Join In UK.
Big Help Out
It is getting close to BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) and I have been busy getting involved with the final preparations for the campaign. Join in and BBC Get Inspired have joined together to say a “#BigThankYou” to sports volunteers. On the evening of SPOTY, Join in patron Eddie Izzard will present the BBC Unsung Hero award and invite the audience (both in the studio and at home) to tweet a ““#BigThankYou” to a sports volunteer. Last year this proved very successful and it trended around the world, beating the X factor final!
Eddie Izzard at BBC SPOTY 2014
Along with this, a gold telephone box will be on the red carpet, inviting stars to phone a volunteer and say thank you. It has been exciting anticipating the sports stars that are going to be attending the awards. Hopefully this campaign will encourage more people to get involved with sports volunteering as well as recognise the value of sports volunteers.
Student Volunteering
Recently I have written a blog for the Join in website about the benefits of volunteering for students. It has been good to write a piece which relates to students, not only because I am one, but because it shows the values of doing work for free. It can provide career openings by building up contacts, gaining work experience and finding out what you like or don’t like. I definitely found volunteering opened the doors to so many opportunities for me, in particular the sports industry.
Christmas!
I am looking forward to having a week off over the Christmas break! And then coming back to new challenges and opportunities at work in 2016!
Louise Rose
(Sports and Social Science, Department of Health)