So. My li’l bro is 16, and cooler than I will ever hope to be. Dammit. And he’s also a thoroughly decent bloke who gives up his spare time for free! (Apparently the girls love this).
Mini me loves football, and would spend all his time playing it, watching it, talking about it, writing about it (you name it) if he could. But he also volunteers as a coach at a local school, passing his, erm, passing skills and goalscoring tips on to the youngsters of Somerset.
He first got involved in volunteering when he started doing his Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award at school. Aside from getting lost on Exmoor (the Expedition section), playing his guitar ad nauseum (Skills), and winning the league and cup with his own football team (Physical), little’un had to undertake a volunteer placement for 3 months.
Now, this is the part that he looked forward to least as, like many 16-year-old boys, he believed volunteering to solely involve making cups of tea and cleaning dentures in an old people’s home. Today, he will freely admit how wrong he was.
Thanks to some imagination from his DofE co-ordinator, li’l bro and his friends found out that volunteering is actually … shock horror … FUN!
The boy himself is the first to admit this: “I thought that volunteering would be boring, but I was so wrong.
“I am able to do something fun, that I enjoy, and volunteering leaves me feeling rewarded and gives me something beneficial to do with my time. I would much rather be doing that than drinking on street corners.
“I like the fact that football is something I love and I get a lot out of the fact that I can help children to play and enjoy it too.
“It makes me feel good about myself that I can pass a skill on, and help people in that way.”
Of course, coaching kids’ football in the rain is not everyone’s cup of tea, though.
He says: “I would say to anyone who wants to give something back to their local community, think of something you really enjoy doing, whether it be playing sport, or music, or anything really, and think of a way you can still do that, but with other people.
“Be innovative, get your friends involved, and you’ll have the best time.”
If you’re 16-25 and would like to volunteer, find opportunities on vinspired.com
