Date Achieved:
Saturday 26th May 2018
Where?
Home and around Melbourne
Why is this experience on the Challenge List?
The reason behind why I wanted to have the opportunity to volunteer and add this experience to the Challenge List is that my family have been my inspiration to start volunteering. As most of them have been involved in volunteering in one form or another and I wanted to be part of something by continuing the tradition.
Description:
For me, volunteering has always been part of my family.
In my family, my Maternal Grandmother has been a Wildlife Carer for the past 30 years, was a Cub Leader, was on the Auxiliary and Committee for the local Community Health Centre for over 16 years. She was also on the Committee of the PCCC and a founding member and volunteer of the local Police Community Register, a program that calls elderly people to check in on their welfare. She volunteered at the Salvation Army Op Shop and was a Tour Guide at a local historical mansion for over 10 years. An SES volunteer, a teacher of computers for elderly people. She also has fed the stall people and visitors at the annual Model Railway Club for over 40 years. Both Maternal grandparents held many committee roles and as volunteers at the Williamstown Railway Museum. My Maternal Grandfather founded and continues to be a crucial member of the annual Model Railway Club, he also was a Scout and Group Leader for many years in his younger days.
My Paternal Grandfather was also a Scout and Group Leader for many years. He also had a Scout Hall named after him in recognition of his efforts in getting donations and by countless volunteered hours to fundraise for the hall to be built. He was a founding member of a local Community Op Shop for a local church and became the treasurer for the Op Shop. My Paternal Grandmother was an assistant for the Scouts also and volunteered at the church community Op Shop for over 40 years. She has done the flower arrangements for the local church including playing the organ for a lot of the churches functions. She assists with many fundraises and helps with catering for this local church.
My Aunite and Uncle volunteer with the local football and netball clubs and my Mum used to be an SES volunteer.
Clearly my family has a passion for volunteering and having the opportunities to help others.
Friends of Holden Flora and Fauna – volunteer & committee member
This was my first experience as a volunteer. I knew that I wanted to volunteer to do something but I wasn’t sure what to do, a few of my friends in Rovers mentioned that they needed to get their volunteering hours up and that there was the opportunity to join the local Friends of Holden Flora & Fauna for a planting day. As I needed to get my hours up as well I decided to join them.
The first day was incredible we planted over 100 plants with the entire group and afterwards, they provided lunch. Giving back to the local community, helping the environment and getting free food, what more could you ask for in a volunteer group?
I have since been to many other planting days, maintenance days, helped the other local group to continue their work with maintenance and planting days. About a year and a half after joining the Friends of group I was asked if I wanted to join the committee. I took up this role and have been able to feel like I am part of this bigger network, where I can continuously help the environment through my practices. Even if I don’t always fully understand everything that is being presented I have the support and guidance of the older mentors to help me and I know that I am still learning.
Cub Scout – helper
Initially being a Cub Scout helper, this helped me to get my remaining volunteering hours completed. In the end, I have well and truly passed my required 10 hours of volunteering for Rovers but I stayed on because of the difference I was able to make with those young people. Not only that, shortly after I joined Cubs my brother was in the age bracket that he could join and he became a Cub, which meant that I got to spend quality time with him each week.
The opportunities that being a Cub helper has been, enabled many possibilities for learning which is incredible, I’ve been on hikes, camps, taught children to bush cook and how to light fires safely, I have met so many new people and it has truly been an incredibly unique experience. Unfortunately, due to work commitments, I cannot make it every week but I make it whenever I can and the children have got to know me quite well as “Rover Mel”.
In recent weeks, my brother has just aged out of Cubs and moved up to being a Scout. I will miss having him around at Cubs. Although, I still have the opportunity to contribute to this amazing program and help to enrich the lives of many young people in my community.
Field Trip – driver & committee member
A cousin of mine actually suggested to me that I get in contact with the organiser of The Field Trip as it was something that she could see me doing. After doing a trail and discovering that the program was a youth program centred around the children’s interests, it was something that I was drawn to. I will note that I did get paid for this program as well to be the driver but that was only every two, three or four weeks, the weeks in between I volunteered my time two hours a week to be a support driver.
This program has offered me the opportunity to lead and help the youth lead in projects about happiness, upcycling, theatre performance, Indigenous empowerment (where we were meant to sing at Federation Square in Melbourne but due to COVID it was cancelled), during COVID we were able to do a health focus and soon I will be helping with the presentation of a KIDx event in my local area.
During my first year I also joined the committee, which has given me a deeper understanding of what goes on in the background with The Field Trip.
Young Endeavour – ambassador
After I finished my journey on the Young Endeavour sailing ship from Cairns to Airlie Beach in 2018, every youthie on board was asked if they would like to participate in becoming an ambassador for the Young Endeavour. Being an ambassador means that I can encourage others to participate in a life-changing voyage just like I did and also participate at events and open days. In March 2019, I was able to be an ambassador at the Geelong wooden boat festival, this was an event where I was able to mingle with people and give them tours of the ship that brought me a lifetime of memories. That particular event was also tied in with International Women’s Day and they had guest speakers of women who have made a difference, one of them had even sailed around the world!
If you are interested in the Young Endeavour program, it is offered to Australian residents aged 16-23 and is run by the Australian Navy so you know your in safe hands. I now have many friends all around Australia that got to share the same journey as me. Why not just check it out, take that leap of faith because who knows it may just change your life like it did mine!
The opportunity to be a Young Endeavour ambassador is an opportunity for me to give something back to the staffies and the program that changed my life.
Supporting Sustainability – coordinating collecting sustainable items
In late 2018, I became the Sustainability leader at my work and I began researching ways that I can get children at work involved in sustainability and the first project I came across was Terracycle upcycling Colgate products into park benches. This was then followed by collecting plastic and metal bottle tops for arts and crafts. Then I found is Aussie Bread tags for Wheelchairs where bread tags are upcycled and the funds help South Africans to access wheelchairs.
I started collecting ring pulls from cans as I discovered my local RSL collected them and they send them away to be melted into wheelchairs, prosthetics and walking sticks. Then I was in my local Red Cross op shop and saw that they collect used stamps, these are auctioned off and the funds go towards the Red Cross. Later I was sent information about Envision collecting plastic bottle tops and melting them down into prosthetics.
I was later reminded that the Zoos Victoria branch collects mobile phones to be recycled and help with the conservation of the gorillas. Then I started collecting corks, buttons and icy pole sticks to be upcycled for arts and crafts.
After collecting these items for a while, I started to realise that there were many more metal bottle tops than what we required for arts and crafts. This lead me to the path of figuring out where to take all these items, I contacted a few places and found a local scrap metal place would take them with no minimum weight. Then after contacting a few more places that declined the funding, I settled on giving the fund from the metal bottle top recycling to the Friends of Holden Flora & Fauna to continue their efforts in plantings and maintenance in the local area.
Large ring pulls is another item that we collect as they can be recycled and the same with the pens and markers that can also be upcycled at Terracycle.
So far after doing this for three years (although not much was collected during COVID compared to 2019) this is the current tally (30/05/2021):
Total collected of items:
Ringpulls = 88,225
Breadtags = 49,347
Used stamps = 1,403
Plastic bottle tops = 77,545
Phones = 101
Colgate products = 166
Metal bottle tops = 194,895
Corks = 1,991
Buttons = 153
Keys = 123
Icey pole sticks = 18
Pens & markers = 113
Large ring pulls = 649
GRAND TOTAL = 414,735
For me, this is something that I can do with friends and I even manage to get my family to help when they can as well. I couldn’t have done it without the support that I have had from everyone around me. We created this space with the Facebook page because it took a lot of research to find all these groups and still a lot of people don’t know about them, by putting it all together can help the general public recycle or upcycle these items that usually would not be reused. All we have done is create the link between these organisations that were already going and the public, although for some items we created our recycling and organisations.
We currently have 35 local organisations, community groups, retirement villages and all our families that collect for us regularly. I love and am very proud of each person when they have something to give me whether it’s a big delivery or a child that finds one or an elderly person that has been collecting them for us. It’s their smile that just makes me know that we are making a difference and they can support us. I remember in the early days when it was just myself and my little sister collecting (she was four years old) we would both jump around the room with excitement because we got a bread tag. Things have certainly changed since then but the excitement remains.
I am extremely proud of what my friends and I have been able to achieve we have diverted over 400,000 bits of essentially rubbish being thrown away! We have been able to teach future generations about their impact they can have even by collecting a couple of items because it does make a difference. As an example, we have collected 88,000 ring pulls and it only takes 3,000 to make a prothetic, which means we have been able to contribute to making almost 30, it just blows my mind when you look at it from that perspective, that every piece counts!
This has taken hours of sorting, counting, delivering and investigating to where we are now but I love it! We really can say that we have made a difference <3
Zooniverse – project classifier
I stumbled upon Zooniverse during a COVID-19 lockdown in Melbourne and this project meant that I was able to continue my passion for volunteering whilst I was stuck at home. The first project that I found was the Western shield: camera watch which was an Australian project to identify animals in Western Australia, spotted by motion-detecting cameras. During the time that this project was open, I contributed to identifying 167 classifications. The process was straightforward, I read the instructions and it explained which animals to identify and how to classify them. Whilst looking at the captures I identified amazing captures, such as; a baby Emu, Currawong, Emu mob and a critically endangered Woylie. These can all be seen below.
Since starting I have contributed to the findings of other projects called; Star notes, Whale chat, Iberian camera trap project and Wildwatch Burrowing Owl. Star notes which is transcribing the groundbreaking work of early women astronomers, I was identifying the unique plate numbers. Whale chat is identifying Humpback whale vocalisations. The Iberian camera trap project is helping to identify the biodiversity in the Iberian Peninsula. Wildwatch Burrowing Owl is used to identify the burrowing owls and what they are doing. My current stats are below.
The best part about Zooniverse is that anyone can be a researcher and there are so many areas of research you can participate in. Zooniverse is the world’s largest and popular online website that is done by people-powered research.
Would I do it again?
Absolutely! Volunteering has been one of my greatest passions since the day I started and I have loved every moment of it since. It has given me the opportunities to extend on my current passions including youth development, environmental care, promoting personal development and sustainable movements.
Highlight:
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give” – Winston Churchill.
I have to say I never truly understood this quote until I started volunteering and now it resonates with me and drives me in the volunteering that I continue to do and through my commitment to helping my local community.
Everything has been a highlight with my volunteering, its incredible that feeling you get after you’ve volunteered to know that by giving time I have been able to make a real difference. I will admit there have its highs and lows, sometimes it’s really hard work with the land maintenance or just giving hours to sort bottle tops. On the reverse, I truly would not trade it for anything, I love every moment of volunteering.
Cost:
The best part of volunteering is that it is completely free! You give your time instead. Through the experience of volunteering, you get so much more than you ever could working a job as you know that you have contributed to making a difference in something that you are passionate about!
Further information:
If you wish to take part in volunteering there are so many opportunities out there from one-day events to weekly, monthly or yearly commitments. Sometimes places may require certain skills but most of the time they just need the help and your time to spare. You can volunteer to do anything and you will be able to find something that you are passionate about.
A quick way to find volunteering opportunities is to search through Seek: Volunteer.
Another way is to check in your local area and just see if anywhere needs help, volunteers are always needed anywhere around the world.
How can you make an impact in your local community or a global scale? You may even change someones life…