Margaret Harding has just achieved her 100 volunteer milestone. Here she tells us about her enjoyment of cheering the Maesteg parkrunners from her favourite place on the course. I first heard about parkrun through my daughter Emma, she had been attending parkrun where she lives in Hampshire and would head to Gnoll or Porthcawl…
Dom Fairlie wanted to increase his activity to help improve his health. Volunteering at parkrun combined with the Couch to 5k programme proved to be the winning formula. After receiving a bit of a warning about my cholesterol levels from the doctor I needed to think about upping my activity levels. I knew I…
Volunteering at parkrun has helped Sandra Harnor overcome the agoraphobia and panic attacks she experienced and build her confidence. Six years ago, I was invited by Trevor Rawson, my yoga teacher, to be part of the team setting up Thurrock parkrun. While we worked on bringing the Thurrock event into existence, I trained for…
Louisa Lally treasures parkrun. She credits the community for getting her through a difficult time post pregnancy, and helping her regaining her fitness. I’ve had a long term love affair with parkrun. My first few years were spent racking up my total number of parkruns, attending post-parkrun coffees and organising my holidays around…
Volunteering has given Dot Yeates the opportunity to be just as involved with her local parkrun as she was before the MS diagnosis she received during lockdown. Every Saturday morning I would see groups of people walking, jogging and running down a slope across the road from my bedroom window. I realised this must be…
Marianna Slivnitskaya has found that volunteering at parkrun is providing her with a welcome dose of positivity, as she takes on the debilitating symptoms of Long Covid. Sometimes I wonder how I lived before I started running. How did I keep myself sane and fit, how did I make decisions, how did I manage to…
On Saturday 2 October 2004, 13 runners and five volunteers turned up to Bushy Park in Teddington, London, for a free, timed, 5k run, known then as the Bushy Park Time Trial. Little did they know what they had started. Paul and Joanne Sinton-Hewitt, Duncan Gaskell, Simon Hedger and Robin Drummond made up the…
Volunteer ambassadors play a massive role in helping support parkrun’s mission to create a healthier and happier planet. We sat down with Jaz Bangerh, Head of HR and Volunteer Management, to find out more about the parkrun Ambassador Programme. What is the Ambassador Programme? The parkrun Ambassador Programme was originally created in the…
Anyone and everyone is welcome to volunteer at parkrun, a course can never have too many marshals, and more tail walkers equals more fun! Volunteering is super easy, and there’s no training or experience required – it’ll also make you feel great. But don’t take our word for it. Read on to find…
It’s parkrun’s 17th anniversary this coming weekend and, to mark the occasion, we’re celebrating everything volunteering. We’ve learnt a lot over the years, and here, for the first time, we’re telling the story of what we once thought about volunteering, how that’s changed, and what it might look like in the future. Volunteering…
