Volunteers Week 2020
Volunteers' Week Celebrations
Welcome to our virtual party where we will be sharing lots of fun things to celebrate our wonderful volunteers of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. Over the course of the week we'll be adding content daily to share the stories and successes of volunteering across the Trust. Keep scrolling down to see each day as it's added. We hope you find the content we share entertaining and uplifting- thank you all for the part you play in protecting Yorkshire's wildlife and wild places.
Volunteers' Week- Day Seven
It’s the last day of Volunteers’ Week- and wow what an action packed week of films, stories, a creative competition and a quiz you’ve had to get stuck into. We wish we could have been with you celebrate face to face but hopefully what we have provided virtually has been entertaining. We wanted you to show how valued and appreciated you all are and how at the heart of all these celebrations has been you, our volunteers. Each of our 800 volunteers should be proud of the huge impact you have for nature conservation and basically making the world a better place- THANK YOU!!
We could think of no better way of ending Volunteers’ Week than by messages of gratitude from our CEO Rachael Bice and the Volunteering Support Team- Marie, Becky, Lindsay and Ana.
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s CEO Rachael Bice rounds off the weeklong Volunteers' Week celebrations with a big thank you to all our volunteers.
A little message of thanks from the Volunteering Support Team at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.
Volunteers' Week- Day Six
It’s the penultimate day of Volunteers' Week and last but by no means least we move to South Yorkshire, our remaining team to find out about volunteering here. We have a whole bunch of brilliant volunteers in South Yorkshire from a small army of people who help Potteric Carr ticking over, to livestock checkers, survey volunteers and practical conservation volunteers who help maintain reserves in this area. We hope you enjoy Sophie and Kate's volunteering stories today.
There’s also an audio recording of a social distanced Wildlife Question Time for you to have a listen to- we had many interesting questions to answer, so thank you for sending them in to us.
Every day we've hopefully shown you something that demonstrates how valued our volunteers are at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. We hope you are enjoying this virtual Volunteers' Week as much as we are!
Volunteers in South Yorkshire help to keep our nature reserves in great condition. Sophie Pinder, their volunteer manager shares some of the things they get up to whilst volunteering.
My Voluntary Traineeship by Kate License
Wildlife Question Time is here- you asked and we answered! Wildlife Question Time with Rosie Snowden, Jonathan Leadley, Ana Cowie, Jon Traill and hosted by Marie Fooks.
Volunteers' Week Day Five
It's Day Five and we're still going with our virtual celebrations! Today we hear from Vanessa Barlow in the East Region Team and learn how volunteers are helping to transform Barmby on the Marsh nature reserve and then we head over to find out from John Cave what our Invasive Non Native Species project gets up to with the help of volunteers. Plus we hear from one of Voluntary Trainees- George Hoey about why he's taking time out to do his placement with us.
We’re also bursting at the seams to tell you who the winners are of our Creative Competition- scroll down to find out!
Project Assistant Vanessa Barlow explains why volunteers are so important to our non-native invasive species work and also how crucial the support of volunteers has been at Barmby on the Marsh.
Giant hogweed, Japanese knotweed, American skunk cabbage and Himalayan balsam are all non-native species to the UK but they have found a foothold our countryside. The INNS project works with volunteers to help find and then remove these unwanted and sometimes harmful plants. Project Officer John Cave provide some insight into how his volunteers help the project.
George Hoey East Reserves Voluntary Trainee explains why he benefits from undertaking a traineeship and why he enjoys volunteering so much with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.
Creative Competition Winners
Once again we have been amazed by your talent, skill and creativity, what an incredible group of people our volunteers are. There were four categories, Paintings/Art, Poetry, Photography and Other Creatives. Below are the 1st place and runners up for each of these rounds.
Paintings/ Art
1st Place Bluebells in Sandall Beat Wood by Rosemary Millican
Runner Up Entertaining the Wildlife on Loversall Delph at Potteric Carr by Sheila Bury
Poetry
1st Place Walking up Watlowes by Helen Pedley
Runner Up Wolds Walk in May by Sue Austin
Photography
1st Place Beef Shorthorn on the Herbal Lay Field by Faye Barson
Runner up Come Rain or Shine by Alison Scott
Other creatives
1st Place Harp Playing at Danes Dyke by Julie Thompson
Runner Up Good Morning music composed by Rachel Gibson
Once again thank you to everyone who entered the competition you should all be incredibly proud of your talents!
Painting and Drawings- 1st Prize Winner Bluebells in Sandall Beat Wood by Rosemary Millican
Painting and Drawings Runner Up Entertaining the Wildlife on Loversall Delph at Potteric Carr by Sheila Bury
Photography
1st Place Beef Shorthorn on the Herbal Lay Field by Faye Barson
Photography Runner up Come Rain or Shine by Alison Scott
Poetry Winner and Runner Up
Other creatives winner
Harp Playing at Danes Dyke by Julie Thompson
Volunteers' Week Day Four
We’re half way through the celebrations of our volunteers and there’s still so much to see and hear about- that’s testament to the amount of support and generosity of time we receive from all of you.
Day four takes us to the sea- a special place for many of us, full of wonderful wildlife and big skies. We have an incredible team of volunteers that support our Living Seas work-our Welcome Volunteers and Inspiring People Volunteers at the Living Seas Centre who welcome and inspire our visitors about the marine conservation, to our Peering at Puffin Volunteers who share the spectacle of the sea bird city at Flamborough with passers-by and also there’s a massive team of Seawatch Surveyors up and down the east coast watching out for cetaceans.
In our stories today, we’ll be hearing from Emma Dawber who volunteers at the Living Seas Centre in many guises and Bex Lynam North Sea Marine Advocacy Officer talks about why volunteers are such a vital element of the Seawatch Project. We also have a film about one of our Waves of Waste Co-ordinators- Luzanne Fletcher
Living Seas Volunteer Emma Dawber tells us why volunteering is so important to her and why so loves it so much, that she has so many different roles across our Living Seas programme.
An inspirational video about one of our Waves of Waste Co-ordinators Luzanne who organises beach cleans in her local town of Scarborough.
North Sea Marine Advocacy Officer Bex Lynam relies on a team of volunteers along the East coast to watch out for and record dolphins and whales. This data that our volunteers collects helps to support the management of our seas. Bex tells us a little more about this in her video.
Volunteers' Week Day Three
The virtual party is in full swing now and on Wednesday we go west to hear about volunteering in this area with three great stories from staff and volunteers in our West Region Team. Plus for all you quiz lovers out there, we have the Great Big Volunteers Quiz for you to download and play with friends and family- there's a Yorkhire round, oh and yes of course a wildlife round but we hope the the final round will make you chuckle.
Elspeth Robinson Living Landscape Officer share with us why her group of Lower Aire Volunteers are the bee’s knees.
Stirley Farm Livestock Checking Volunteers Lorna Allen, Steve Martin and Neil Garbutt love the role they play in helping to keep an eye on our cows and also the stunning views that Stirley provides.
Chris Goodall Lowe Aire Valley Volunteer speaks to us from home about why volunteering is important to him and what he’s missing during the COVID- 19 pandemic
The Great Big Volunteers' Quiz
Volunteers' Week Day Two
We hope you enjoyed yesterday’s video stories. Today we shift our focus to volunteering across North Yorkshire- there’s so much that goes on in this part of the county. We have some amazing Supporter Groups of practical conservation volunteers who help to maintain nature reserves at Grass Wood and in the Harrogate area, there's also survey volunteers, voluntary trainees, livestock checkers and behind the scenes volunteers at our head office.
Today we hear from Living Landscapes Officer Graham Standring, Rachel Green Supporter Group Co-ordinator and Practical Conservation Task Leader and Dominic Hinchley from the Yorkshire Peat Partnership.
Rachel Green is a Supporter Group Co-ordinator and Practical Conservation Task Leader across our nature reserves in the Harrogate area. She helps to lead task days and manage other volunteers with a wide range of conservation tasks. Rachel tells us more about why she volunteers in this video.
Living Landscapes Officer Graham Standring shows us what impact his volunteers have across our North Yorkshire nature reserves- from drystone walling to help deal with the saddening effects of ash die back, his volunteers make a huge difference in this corner of Yorkshire.
Dominic Hinchley explains the crucial role volunteers play in the restoration of peatland habitats and how they don't even let the weather defeat them- well not always!
Volunteers' Week Day One
It's day one of Yorkshire Wildlife Trusts Volunteers' Week 2020 celebrations! To kick off the week we have a film from Rachael Bice our Chief Executive sharing her thoughts with you about volunteering at the Trust.
We recently won the planning inquiry that has secured Askham Bog Nature reserve from a large housing development- Louise Wilkinson Campaigns Manager and Alastair Fitter Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Trustee, share with us how important this site is for nature and how volunteers play their part in looking after this special place.
Former Trustee Hilda Muir shares her thoughts with us about how volunteers have played their part in the past and how their legacy as a volunteer has helped build the Trust into what we see today.
We hope you enjoy today’s entertainment. Tomorrow we will visit our staff and volunteers in our North region team to hear about some of their stories.
Rachael Bice CEO gives us her thoughts on why our volunteers are so important to our work and kicks of the Volunteers' Week celebrations!
Louise Wilkinson Campaigns Manager and Alastair Fitter Trustee share how important Askham Bog is for wildlife, and how Trust volunteers played their part in saving the Bog from damage due to a large housing development that was threatening this amazing oasis in York.