“As an Irish person who’s never lived anywhere else, I think it’s great that there’s so many visitors here. It’s my responsibility to welcome people. If it wasn’t for volunteers these things wouldn’t happen.”
Jim volunteers with Cork Community Volunteers. You can find out about the Community Volunteers programme in your county here!
“I’ve been involved with a football team and a music venue but this is the first formal joining of a group [to volunteer]. I’ve always been volunteering for bits and pieces and different events but then someone told me about Community Volunteers and it’s a good way to consolidate everything and instead of looking at 20 different websites you can see all of what’s on. I had got out of the habit of going to the cinema but the film festival was great! Every film was a different event so you could pick or choose. You could see loads and loads of brilliant movies you wouldn’t normally see so it got me in the habit of going to the cinema again!
“You get a great insight into how modern Ireland is. You get groups of people from all over the world. I’ve met so many different people. It’s a big group registered but you’re never with the same group twice. You meet different people and you make a connection with them. As an Irish person who’s never lived anywhere else, I think it’s great that there’s so many visitors here. It’s my responsibility to welcome people. If it wasn’t for volunteers these things wouldn’t happen.
“Everybody can get involved in Community Volunteers! It’s a perfect place to start volunteering. It’s a good insight into everything that’s going on socially in the city. Maybe people aren’t from Cork and they’re just here for a while, so it’s a chance to meet people. You can tell there’s a connection between people right away, volunteers become buddies, become pals. For a lot of people English isn’t their first language, they’re stretching themselves. Once they’re into it, they always enjoy it. It’s a great networking thing. It’s a good way of meeting people and getting outside your house.”
This National Volunteering Week, we’re celebrating the diversity of volunteers who make Ireland what it is. No matter your age, race, abilities, or status, we honor your place in the community and the volunteering that you, uniquely, do.
Thank you to Jim for sharing his story. Please email [email protected] if you’d like to share yours!
