Penny volunteers with the water management team, supporting hydrologists and helping to ensure there is enough water in the canals.
Penny has lived in Worcestershire for the past couple of years, but previously in Leicestershire, and is now retired. As well as volunteering for the us she volunteers in the coffee shop of her local arts centre. She's a bell-ringer and spends a couple of evenings a week ringing at local towers, and also periodically litter-picks around her home village to help keep the place looking beautiful. Here's what Penny had to say about volunteering with us.
What do you do when you volunteer with us?
I volunteer with the water management team. My volunteering was initially based in Hatton, but since Covid the team have been home-based so I usually work from my kitchen. I support the hydrologists mainly by working with spreadsheets collating and processing data about the water sources to the canals, to support their work in ensuring there is water in the waterways.
What made you decide to volunteer with us, and how did you come across this opportunity?
I was planning on retiring from the NHS. Everyone kept asking me what I was going to do with my time. My only answer was ‘I don’t know, but it won’t be golf’. I was watching the East Midlands news and they did a piece about a team of students from the university helping to clear the canal in Leicester.
The Trust colleague who was running the event was asked what he thought about people who dumped their rubbish in the canal and he replied ‘Well, they’d be better off spending their time volunteering for us’.
It was a bit of a lightbulb moment for me. I love the canals and Leicester was local to me, so I looked online for a volunteer opportunity with the Trust. There was a breach archivist role advertised at Hatton (one of my favourite places) so I applied for that, and started volunteering with the water management team.
What are the benefits of volunteering?
Volunteering gives me joy, so I definitely benefit from it! I love absorbing new information and learning new skills, and working with a team of fantastic professionals and other volunteers in a context which is nothing like my NHS career.
I enjoy the challenge of a good spreadsheet, the rewards of working in a team, and the variety of the job; I’ve learnt so much about the canal network.
Although I mainly work from home, I go to in-person team meetings and join other members of the team on occasional site visits. We also attend public-facing events like Crick Boat Show where we demonstrate our flume showing how a lock works, which is great fun.
I’ve been really lucky to find a role which I find interesting, challenging, varied and rewarding
Penny
Has anything surprised you?
I knew that the Trust had volunteer lock keepers but had no idea about the wide spectrum of departments in the Trust, or the variety of volunteering opportunities – both indoors and out. I’ve been really lucky to find a role which I find interesting, challenging, varied and rewarding.
Why do you think volunteers are important for the Trust?
Volunteers’ time either enables tasks to be completed that otherwise couldn’t be prioritised, or supports Trust staff to meet their challenges more effectively.
Whether volunteers give time regularly or occasionally and whether they bring specific skills to their tasks or, like me, learn as they go along, our time is valuable to the Trust, and I have found colleagues and the Trust hierarchy to be very positive in expressing appreciation of our work.
What is or has been the best part about volunteering?
Hard to choose just one thing, but probably learning – new information and new skills.
