To celebrate the start of the festive season, NUSU Go Volunteer has launched 14 Days of Go Volunteer Christmas, where students can expect to see many events organised for charity. Between the 1st and the 14th of December, there will be at least one volunteering activity on offer each day for all students to enjoy.
Becky at Go Volunteer says, “We are so excited for 14 Days of Christmas, it is full of activities for everyone to get involved in. We have something for everyone: a chance to give back to the local community, help others, and have some fun whilst getting in the festive spirit. After all, Christmas is the time for giving!”
The activities began with Fareshare Tesco Food Collections on Saturday 1st December. This nationwide event, aimed at tackling food poverty, involves collecting food to distribute to 3500 charities across the country. Similarly, on Friday 7th, Helping Our Homeless held a sandwich making event in the Students’ Union, with the food then being handed out by the Destiny Streetworx charity to homeless people in Newcastle. The society also hosted a Santa Dash on Saturday 8th to raise donations for the shoebox appeal.
A Christmas wriggly bag making event will be held this Tuesday (11th). Wriggly bags are small bags are for children with Hickman lines to hold the extra tubes, meaning they can continue playing whilst keeping their tubes clean and secure. All bags will be donated to the RVI children’s ward. Participants only need to give up 15 minutes of their time. No sewing experience is required and all sewing materials are provided for.
On Tuesday 11th, students can also participate in the shoebox appeal in the History Room 10am-4pm. Organised by the Helping our Homeless Society, the appeal helps those in need over the Christmas period. Students can help by donating winter warmer items or helping sort the packages into shoeboxes.
A Christmas Post Pals session will be held on Wednesday 12th. Post Pals is a charity that helps people “post a smile on a sick child’s face” by sending cards, letters, emails and little gifts to seriously ill children in the UK. Students can pop in for as little as 15 minutes to write a small letter. Post Pals says, “We will have all the materials needed, teas, coffees and Christmas music just bring friends!”
Other events taking place include Jingle books wrapping on Monday 10th and Tuesday 11th. Students are asked to donate books and wrap them up, ready to be gifted to somebody else. INTOgration, an English language study group supported by Go Volunteer, are hosting a Christmas session on Wednesday 5th in INTO. Finally the Go Volunteer project A Second Life is hosting a decoration making workshops on Monday 10th following from one carried out on Friday 7th. All the decorations will be made from recycled materials.
All activities will be listed on the ‘One off Projects’ section at https://www.nusu.co.uk/volunteering/events. For more information on the project, students can also email govolunteer.union@newcastle.ac.uk