As the warm summer weather arrives, you might be planning various ways to enjoy your days over the coming weeks and months.
If you are looking for a positive summer activity, volunteering for a charity is the best option to pursue. Here are just a handful of volunteering ideas to consider this year.
Raise Money with a Charity Walk
Rather than being cooped up inside for hours on end, get out and about while doing your bit for a good cause by getting involved in a charity walk, or indeed a charity run if you are a little more physically adept.
Whatever way you choose to raise money while getting out and about in the great outdoors, make sure that you get friends, family and co-workers involved by requesting sponsorship in person and via social media. Also remember that sponsorship is eligible for Gift Aid, which can boost what the charity receives for your efforts.
Help Those In Need
There are a number of volunteering options available if you would like to make a real difference to people in need, whether it be due to poverty or another factor. Charities such as Compassion UK, who run a sponsor a child programme (learn more here) share a host of opportunities on their website. Similar opportunities are available with Oxfam, British Red Cross and others.
Another rewarding alternative is volunteering at care homes for the elderly to make the lives of residents brighter and more rewarding.
There are lots of ways to help out if you donate your time to a care home. You can read to those who are no longer capable of doing so themselves, you can participate in excursions to ensure that everyone is provided with the help they need while away from the home, you can entertain residents with performances and recitals that you and your friends have rehearsed; the options are almost endless.
Collect Litter Locally
This allows you to have a positive impact in your own community.
You can volunteer as part of an organised litter picking group, although it is also incredibly easy to take a bin bag, some gloves and a grabbing device to your local park and simply start collecting the rubbish that has been disposed of there.
Litter is also an issue on the coast, with over 700 items recorded for every 100 metres of beach covered in the recent Great British Beach Clean campaign. This shows that the work of volunteers is vital in the fight against litter.
Coach Kids in Sports
Local sports teams are always crying out for experienced coaches to help train youngsters who want to have fun in a competitive, physically active way.
Even if you are not capable of volunteering in a teaching role, there are lots of other duties that need to be fulfilled by adults in sports clubs nationwide, so do not be shy.
Host a bake Sale
Volunteering a little of your time and expertise to raise money for charity can take many forms, and with the Great British Bake Off set to return to TV this summer, you will have ample opportunity to get involved in bake sales for good causes while honing your pastry-making abilities.
Once again you have the option of either setting up the sale yourself and picking the charity it is in aid of, or looking out for local events that are already planned along similar lines.
Indeed the popularity of the Bake Off has seen a spike in charity-based baking events, which is surely a good thing. If you can combine your own sale with an outdoor event, such as a school fete or a garden party, it will really take advantage of the summer as a season.
However you decide to volunteer this summer, remember that even the smallest amount of time dedicated to charity in this way can have an important cumulative impact across the region and the country.
