Tim Clarke
Thousands of volunteers have literally and metaphorically come through our doors over the years here at Avon Wildlife Trust, all with the same desire to take action for nature, and we want to celebrate them!
To do this, I want to share with you some of the thoughts and experiences of a few of our current volunteers:
“Volunteering for Avon Wildlife Trust is a fantastic opportunity to help in the local community, enjoy and appreciate an amazing local nature reserve and play a valued role for an organisation whose values I share completely. We have a duty to maintain the upkeep and preservation of this fantastic landscape feature.
''Volunteering for the Trust has allowed me to begin working at a landscape scale and we are all excited to realise the potential in this area, having begun some nature conservation work in the wetland last winter, and the group feel this is a worthy project to take under our wing.”
(C) Chris Kaboutian
“Grow Wilder is an oasis of nature in the city. I support the wildlife aims of the Trust and my placement also makes me think about the importance of food production, food scarcity and food poverty: these challenges must be cascaded and shared. We address these here by training others how to grow.
"As I also did the Grow Leader course at Grow Wilder, this was the start of my journey, and a catalyst for personal change and my career journey. I’ve now got an allotment and have started to study, now my friends and family ask me for growing know how and always want to ask me questions on how to do things!"
(C) Frances Clinch
“I volunteer for Avon Wildlife Trust for a couple of reasons. Primarily because I have had such pleasure, and even excitement, from the natural world in my life as well as making some great friendships through my bird watching activities, so I wanted to give something back. When I've spent a day volunteering, I feel that I've achieved something in that way.
"I also enjoy the company and the humour of the other volunteers, retirement limits your interaction with others and I've met other people with different life experiences to mine. I also enjoy the regularity of knowing what I'll be doing on a Wednesday each week, going to different sites and performing different tasks.
“As a result, I've joined Avon Wildlife Trust as a member, have become more environmentally aware and more interested in the work of AWT on all their reserves. I've also organised several beach cleans on the Severn Estuary where I undertake bird surveys and now I'm probably a bit fitter than the average man of my years!”
I hope anyone who donates their time like this feels proud of what they achieve every time they get involved!
If you’d like to find out what volunteering opportunities we currently have available, sign up to our Volunteer Newsletter:
