What’s on your “to do” list for 2020? What’s your all important New Year’s Resolution? Maybe take up a new hobby, be more active, see more of family or friends? Well, we have the answer that rolls all of these into one – volunteering at Delapré Abbey!
Volunteering is so much more than just donating your time to a worthy cause, it’s about giving something back, feeling valued, increasing confidence, and meeting new people.
In 2019, our volunteer team accumulated nearly 1200 hours of donated time to Delapré Abbey! This covered people helping in a whole variety of roles – from being tour guides and abbey hosts, to gardeners and events stewards. Such fantastic support means that we are able to open the Abbey for you, the public, to enjoy. Volunteering has also contributed to us managing to put on a full programme of events including our popular Delapré by the Sea week in the summer holidays and the special tour offerings such as Downton at Delapré.
Volunteers make a huge impact on everything we do, and without their passion and enthusiasm, we wouldn’t be making the positive steps forward for our visitors and community.
So why should you think about volunteering, and why with us?
Volunteering provides you with a multitude of benefits, including positive effects on mood, self-confidence, value, and purpose. Furthermore it helps to counteract stress, anxiety and depression. As such, we dedicate ourselves towards supporting anyone and everyone with achieving their goals out of volunteering with us – be that sharing a passion for history and meeting people, spending quality time away from work, school, or a busy lifestyle, to developing new skills and experiences.
Here are just some of the reasons why our volunteers enjoy spending time at Delapré Abbey:
“For me, it’s about meeting great people – visitors, staff and other volunteers, as well as helping people enjoy their visit to a wonderful place.” – Alan
“Volunteering at Delapré Abbey gives me the feeling of putting something back into the community. The sociality it provides and the opportunity to learn is fantastic!” – Maggie
“I enjoy doing something constructive in supporting a major historic building as it’s brought back to life.” – Peter
“I love the satisfaction of telling the story of the history to visitors and sharing time with other volunteers.” – Rose
We believe these testimonials from our volunteers speak volumes, and we have a commitment to ensuring a great volunteering experience. This includes building great relationships, offering opportunities for trips out, annual socials, and at the simplest yet most effective level, saying “thank you”.
So if you want to make 2020 the year for YOU, find out what we can offer and get volunteering with Delapré Abbey!
We hope to see many new people interested in volunteering at our next Volunteer Welcome Evening on Wednesday 22 January at 6pm. For more information on this and to discuss our opportunities, please email visitorwelcome@delapreabbey.org or 01604 760817.
