Archive for the ‘Friday favourites’ Category
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Give a Day, Get a Disney Day attracts 1 million volunteers
There’s been a lot of debate about the rights and wrongs of incentive schemes for volunteers. Wherever you stand, it’s hard not to be in awe of any campaign which attracts 1 million volunteers in less than 10 weeks.
Give a Day, Get a Disney Day offered volunteers a day out at a Disney theme park in exchange for volunteering a day of their time through the Hands-On Network.
Giving away tickets isn’t new to Disney – in 2009, it distributed around 100,000 tickets a month to anyone who went to one of their U.S. theme parks on his or her birthday. In contrast, the volunteer promotion attracted 100,000 participants per week this year. Disney says the campaign exceeded their expectations, and I can well believe it. Who’d have expected volunteering to be more popular than birthdays?
“The innovative nature of this program has exponentially increased our capacity to both invite and excite people about volunteerism,” said Michelle Nunn, co-founder of HandsOn Network.
Non-profits around the US are reporting a bump in participation, and volunteers are claiming they got more than just a freebie. Whether the magic will last longer than the campaign remains to be seen, but bloggers are already speculating that the campaign will be repeated.
Meanwhile, volunteering is making the news in the US with the federal Corporation for National and Community Service says they’re experiencing a recession-related “compassion boom”, and a poll of 1003 Americans showed that 78% believe they’re more involved in making a difference than their parents were.
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This week’s Friday favourite: volunteering ewe-phoria
Just when you think you’ve got a handle on the sheer diversity of volunteering opportunities available out there – someone pulls it out of the bag. Today, it’s the turn of Doncaster Council, who in partnership with Natural England, are calling for volunteer shepherds to join their flock. Yep, that’s right – volunteers are being invited to shepherd a flock of Hebridean sheep grazing on Hatfield Moors, near Doncaster.
Volunteers are needed to help staff from Natural England take part in regular health checks on the sheep, including checking for lameness and the general health of the sheep and to keep track of the herd. The animals act as natural gardeners, keeping the National Park’s scrub land under control.
It’s all part of the new Muck In4Life campaign, which is aimed at encouraging more people to adopt a healthier lifestyle while helping charities and voluntary organisations to look after the natural environment.
The campaign, launched by Defra, hopes to get more families and individuals out of the house and involved in conservation work – everything from bat spying to tree planting and clearing beach litter to pond de-sludging.
Meanwhile, volunteers from most guinea pig rescue groups in America are running education programmes in a bid to escape the “101 Dalmations” effect. They’re worried that Disney’s new G-Force film, which stars guinea pigs, will spark an increase in abandoned “film pets”, putting extra strain on animal shelters, which are already stretched due to the recession. The G-Force website advises viewers to be responsible and research any pet “to make sure that it is suitable for your particular situation” and consider adopting from a shelter.
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