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The first edition of the student volunteering newsletter for the academic year 2009-10.
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and this time I’m the
editor!
In this issue we bring
you updates on how
successful Fresher’s
week was, how the fun
run went and some
information on future
events. If you want to
get involved in Volun-
teering, in writing for
the newsletter, or if
you have an event
idea or anything you
think the committee
should know about
please do not hesitate
to get in touch with any
of us!
Enjoy!
Leyanne
Hey Everyone!
Welcome to Inspire
newsletter! Some of
you may remember us
from last term, but this
time we are a little bit
different! More people
have joined the team,
and we are working
really closely with the
DSU Volunteer Com-
mittee to bring you up-
to-date information on
upcoming events and
previous events. We
would love as many
people as possible to
get involved with
Volunteering this year,
its fun, it looks good on
your CV and you’ll be
helping to make a dif-
ference!
My name’s Leyanne,
I’m a 3rd year
Journalism and Media
Studies Student, and
I was feature’s editor
of Inspire
newsletter last term,
Leyanne’s Blog
I n s i d e t h i s i s s u e :
Upcoming Events
2
Freshers Week 2
Trip to Edale 3
Bird Box Build-ing with the
BTCV 2
World AIDS Day 3
Caudwell Chil-dren
5
Coppicing in Croft
5
DMU Fun Run 6
Contact us 6
O c t o b e r 2 0 0 9 I s s u e 8
The DSU Student Volunteering Newsletter
DSU Volunteering
Room 1.30 DSU First Floor The Campus Centre
Tel: 0116 2576304
INSPIRE
Random Acts of
Kindness (left)
during Freshers’
Week. See Page 2
for more.
Building Bird Boxes
(right ) with BTCV
during Freshers’.
Read all about it on
page 4
P a g e 2
Freshers! What a Week! Harriet Jackson
Freshers week has been the most suc-cessful week ever for the DSU volunteering society.
Over the week the stu-dent volunteering com-mittee and staff put on special events and hosted information stalls everyday and received a huge amount of positive re-sponse from DMU stu-dents.
Volunteer Support Officer, Glen White said: ‘This is the best freshers week we have ever had, we are thrilled!’
On Monday the student committee went round the campus offering fellow students cups of
tea, sweets and hugs as a random act of kindness.
There was even a life-size banana and gorilla helping the committee and giving freshers directions.
On Tuesday evening students and staff had an informal drinks re-ception to meet fellow volunteers, old and new. Everyone got a complimentary glass of champagne and had a great time catching up after the long summer.
Later in the week, The British Trust for Con-versation Volunteers (BTCV) visited DMU again to encourage students to help them build bird boxes for local conser-vation areas and allot-
ments.
The volunteers promoted environmental volunteering and had over forty people build bird boxes. The students were even given the choice of taking the bird boxes to put them in their own gardens.
On the last day of Freshers, the volun-teering committee had a stand at the freshers fair. During the week 500 students inter-ested in getting in-volved in volunteering.
All in all; the DSU vol-unteering society are looking forward to great things this aca-demic year. Watch this Space!
I N S P I R E
Friday 30th October
Make A Difference Day
Get involved with painting a
mural of Filbert the Fox at
Leicester City’s Walkers
Stadium
Thursday 5th November
12-4pm Coppicing at Croft
with the BTCV
Come along for a fun day
out in the countryside with
the BTCV. To find out more
go to Hannah’s article on
page 5
Friday 20th November
Children in Need
Get involved with helping
the DSU Student Volunteer-
ing Committee raise money
for Children in Need.
Tuesday 1st December
World AIDS Day
Help us raise awareness of
HIV & AIDS.
If you would like to get in-
volved in any of the above
events then please email
UPCOMING
EVENTS
Committee Trip to Edale, Derbyshire Harriet Jackson
P a g e 3 I s s u e 8
Six members of the DSU Volunteering Committee spent a few days at a youth centre in the Edale, Derbyshire during the summer break.
The purpose of the trip was to plan future events, get to know the committee members, their roles within the society and to enjoy a few days in the peak district.
There were six members of the volunteering com-mittee who went on the trip along with Volunteer Support Officer, Glen White and Volunteer Manager, Vicky Hossack.
This is a very important year for the Volunteering Office, as they begin their first year as ‘DSU Volun-teering’ and with the sup-port and dedication of the student volunteering com-
mittee they are planning on making it a very suc-cessful year.
The group took part in indoor and outdoor ac-tivities such as climbing and orien-teering and as a result have
become good friends and confident indi-viduals, shaping the student volunteering committee.
They have planned events such as ‘DSU Clothes Show’. This will include a fashion show with clothes brought from charity shops only, a stall with quality second hand clothes where students can buy them and then customise their new purchases on a separate customising stall and many more exciting things. The DSU Clothes Show will have something for everyone so keep checking back for more information.
who have died from AIDS/HIV.
World Aids Day is therefore held to raise money, increase awareness, fight prejudice and improve edu-cation.
AIDS has been observed as the most destructive epidemic recorded in history, each year a differ-ent theme is chosen with 2009’s theme being
The idea of World Aids day was constructed by James Bunn and Thomas Netter in 1987 who believed that the issue of AIDS needed to be more widely covered across the world. World Aids Day is dedicated to raising aware-ness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of the HIV infection. It is held on the 1st of December each year around the world to honour the memory of those
‘Universal Access & Human Rights.’
It has been estimated that around 33.2 million people live with HIV, 2.5 million of those being children.
De Montfort Students’ Union is again getting involved with World Aids Day as previous years have proved such a success. This year is no different with events being planned across the city and within the union. If you would like to get involved with World AIDS Day and help raise awareness then please contact [email protected]
World Aids Day 2009 by Zahra Malik
P a g e 4
Bird Box Building Breaks Previous Year’s Record
David Murphy
As DSU volunteering efforts got off to a great start at the be-ginning of Fresher’s week, Thursday 1st October brought a taste of environmental action to new students at De Montfort Univer-sity with a day-long activity aimed at pre-serving bird-life in the area… all by building bird boxes by hand!
Partnered with the BTCV (the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers), who spe-cialise in projects pro-tecting wildlife and the environment with re-development and su-pervision, all partici-pants at the 12-4pm event were given the chance to build their own ‘DIY’ Bird Boxes.
Situated in a central
place in the university to catch students and the people of Leices-ter, and on a sunny day also, the Marquee and stall were set up to get people to join in, and once they had their box ready- sign up with future projects with DSU volunteering and with the BTCV.
There were profes-sional conservation-ists on hand from the BTCV to help build the simple ‘hammer, nail and wood’ boxes, while all volunteers were offered tea, cof-fee and biscuits as they put in the hard work to create their own special box. They were all given the op-portunity to keep the boxes and take them home as well!
The purpose of the bird box building exer-cise was not just to help all the birds have a home over the win-ter season, in the trees and gardens of Leicester. It was also a good example of teamwork and the creativity involved in being a volunteer.
The best part was over 50 boxes were built, which was more than last year when the event was staged previously, probably because it was much sunnier this time! It proved a successful event two years in a row there should defi-nitely be more pro-jects with the BTCV in the future (see Hannah’s article on page 5). I N S P I R E
The
Committee
Chair
Robert Gough
Vice-Chair / Events
Lewis Hatfull
Secretary
David Murphy
Treasurer
Vacant
Events
Natalie Linnell
Student-Led
Projects
Hannah Slater
Media &
Communications
Harriet Jackson
Media &
Communications
Amy Seabrook
Inspire Editor
Leyanne Goding
General Member
Rhydian Jones
General Member
Zahra Malik
To Infinity and Beyond! Lewis Hatfull
P a g e 5 I s s u e 8
Five...four...three...two...on
e...we have lift off! Thurs-
day 22nd October saw vol-
unteers from DMU blast off
on a mission to the Interna-
tional Space Centre in col-
laboration with Cauldwell
Children’s ‘Gift of a Day’
programme. This pro-
gramme revolves around
the simple idea of giving up
just one day of your time to
help support families who
are often overwhelmed by
the emotional and financial
strain that comes with car-
ing for a sick or disabled
child. These days out are
designed to be inclusive for
the whole family, not just
the sick child. It’s a chance
for everyone to have a
great day out and that in-
cluded us volunteers!
Our first mission of
the day was to make and
decorate paper rockets
which we later launched out
in the car park. This was a
great ice breaker activity
between the families and
volunteers; everyone got
stuck and we created some
rather interesting and col-
ourful spacecraft. We also
got the chance to experi-
ence the amazing Space
Theatre where we learnt
about astronomers, tele-
scopes and satellites in 360
degrees of mind blowing 3D
fun. The Space Centre
seemed to go down very
well with both the families
and volunteers alike, I
caught myself a few times
getting overly excited and
dashing off towards the next
exhibit!
Overall it was a very rewarding experience taking part in this activity, although
it did not seem like we were doing a lot, you could tell by the faces of the families that they really appreciated the day out and a chance to have a break from it all. I’m glad I made the gift of a day. Giving just one day of your time can be made a huge dif-ference to the lives of others. Volunteering is the most effective and rewarding way to get involved and make a real change to everyday lives.
Caudwell Children’s Gift of a Day programme provides support where it is needed most; to families who are often overwhelmed by the emotional and financial strains that caring for a sick or disabled child can bring.
If you would like to get involved in future projects
with Caudwell Children please email
air and local countryside
with a number of volunteers
already signed up to get the
axes swinging and learn
some woodland manage-
ment skills.
If you’ve no idea what cop-
picing is then don’t panic!
At first we didn’t know ei-
ther here on the volunteer-
ing committee, but we can
now tell you that coppicing
is a woodland management
technique going back cen-
Next week DSU Volunteer-
ing together with the BCTV
will be running a taster ses-
sion for volunteers who
wish to get involved with
environmental conservation
work.
A trip to Croft woods will
take place on Thursday 5th
November where our fan-
tastic volunteers will be
coppicing trees with the
BCTV. It promises to be a
great afternoon in the fresh
turies. It involves chopping trees close to the
base of the trunk, which helps keep the woods
healthy and alive by opening up the canopy and
allowing more light in for wild flowers and ani-
mals on the forest floor.
If you fancy getting involved and spending just a
few hours volunteering in Croft woods then sign
up by emailing us at [email protected]
Transport is provided from the Campus Centre
leaving at 12 and returning by 4pm. Photogra-
phy students are recommended to bring their
cameras as this offers an unmissable opportu-
nity for some great snaps of natural woodland
and wildlife!
Coppicing in Croft by Hannah Slater
P a g e 6 I s s u e 8
Fresher’s week may seem
a distant memory to most
De Montfort students now,
but the success of this
year’s DMU Fun Run has
not been forgotten.
The finale to this year’s
Fresher’s Festival, which
took place on Sunday 4
October saw 241 students
take to the streets of
Leicester to do a 3.5km
run, raising a fantastic
£888.65 for the LOROS
charity.
The runners of all abilities
completed the circuit
around the DMU campus
and surrounding area,
with the winner, Paige
Haines crossing the line
in an incredible time of 12
minutes and 13 seconds.
Last year’s De Montfort
Women’s Football Chair-
man, Rosie Corbett was
the first woman to com-
plete the run in an impres-
sive time of 15 minutes and
41 seconds.
Many other students who
made it past the finishing
line gave the Fun Run their
own stamp by wearing fancy dress or promot-
ing their sports teams and societies.
Competitors also included a stilt walker, three
legged racers, an athlete with an egg and
spoon and even a swimmer in nothing but tight
pants! Everyone who took part in the run re-
ceived a RUN
DMU T Shirt and
goodie bag with
other items.
Everyone had a
great time and
DSU are hoping
the success of the
event will establish
it as a regular edi-
tion to the DSU
calendar.
Inspire would like
to say thanks
again to all the
competitors and volunteers who made the day
so memorable.
If you would like to get involved with the Student Volunteering
Committee, are interested in writing for INSPIRE or have any
questions or feedback then please get in touch!
Leyanne Goding, Editor: [email protected]
Email DSU Volunteering: [email protected]
Website: www.demontfortstudents.com/volunteering
Twitter: www.twitter.com/dsuvolunteering
Facebook: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5740172414#/
Contact Us
I N S P I R E
RUN DMU! by Amy Seabrook
