All the fun of the festival

Margret Pohl’s story

I’m an advocate of filling spare time with something meaningful and useful – for yourself and your community – and since I retired I’ve volunteered for our local Oxfam shop, with The Conservation Volunteers and now with Earth Trust.

I love being in nature and outdoors and I was looking for a new volunteer opportunity nearby when I came across Earth Trust. I immediately liked the charity’s mission and chose the events team because after a traumatic hip fracture three years ago I am not so good anymore with physical work, sadly.

The first events I helped with last year when I joined were the Spring Festival and the summer outdoor theatre event. I was hooked!

I then volunteered to help at the autumn Owl Talk and Pumpkin Patch, and the Christmas Market – so I’ve pretty much covered all the season’s now!

It is always a challenge to do a new “job” when you’ve been out of the working environment for many years but I’ve enjoyed getting out and about, learning “on the job” and getting new perspectives from being an events volunteer. I’ve faced quite a few firsts – helping with arts and crafts in a room full of very excited young children and cashing up for ice creams! I managed very well though and had a sense of achievement afterwards.

And it’s certainly helped to keep me fit physically as many of the tasks involve standing up, being mobile, helping out with carrying and lifting – and bending down when dealing with small children!

When you’re retired your circle of acquaintances tends to become smaller too, and it’s great to be part of a team. You meet so many different people in this role and its a very welcoming environment, the staff are all super friendly.

One fond memory is coming very close up, eye to eye, with Ziggy, the barn owl, and being called witches by the Shakespeare actors when they saw a group of us volunteers in our high viz. You can see my fellow volunteers are anything but!

Joanne Slade’s experience

I’ve been volunteering with Earth Trust for a while, after I saw an advert  in a local magazine.

With my love of the outdoors, and having lived locally all my life, I have spent hundreds of hours at Wittenham Clumps, so it felt like a great opportunity to support Earth Trust who look after this incredible space for us all to enjoy.

My first event was the Lambing Festival in the spring of 2023 – I got to cuddle the baby goats which was very special.

Since then I have volunteered at various events including the Pumpkin Patch, archaeological dig weekends, and Cocktails on the Clumps – where it was especially entertaining seeing the difficulties some people had opening a gate at the end of the night!

As well as helping at events, I also volunteer with the Land Management and hedgelaying teams every week, so I’ve really got to know the work of the charity which has proved really beneficial when I’m talking to people.

It is lovely chatting to visitors about Earth Trust and what it does. Many people don’t realise that as well as being the custodian of Wittenham Clumps, the charity also cares for seven other green spaces around South Oxfordshire like Mowbray Fields in Didcot and Castle Meadows in Wallingford.

Watching everyone have such an enjoyable time, and knowing you are contributing to that. Being part of and supporting a charity that is providing access to beautiful green spaces and engaging people with the environment is very rewarding.

My roles at the event have been very varied and have included everything from supervising parking, to admissions and welcoming visitors, to helping with crafts and overseeing the ‘Be a farmer’ play area.

Whilst you’ll always be allocated to your preferred role, I would say give every one a go if you can. I would never have known that helping with the car parking would be so enjoyable, if I hadn’t tried it!

And you learn new skills; my biggest challenge so far has been trying to make a woolly pom pom sheep. I failed miserably, unlike my colleague Sara whose creation was much more impressive!

The fun and laughter with the staff and other volunteers, and meeting such lovely visitors, make the events wonderful experiences. It is good not to have an aversion to rain though, as the sun doesn’t shine on every event! But even in the rain there is enjoyment to be had. We all want to be there, so it makes for a great environment to work in.