Celebrating volunteer week

This week we celebrate! Of course, we celebrate the return to fencing training this Saturday. But we also celebrate volunteer week.

Why make such a big deal of volunteer week? Because Mountains Fencing Club is an extraordinary place with an amazing community. And we're all volunteers (yes, really!) and we make this place what it is. This Club is inclusive, fun, respectful and welcoming. We love fencing and we care for each other. I've never come across anything quite like it and I'm so glad I did.

Now you may not think of yourself as a volunteer but let me ask you this, have you ever:

• seen a fencing jacket on the floor and hung it back up again?
• taken home a bag of fencing gear to be washed?
• turned up early to fencing and plugged in a wire or moved a trolley or set out a chair?
• helped run a game at the start of a session while the coaches get ready?
• offered to get a coffee for one of the other parents (or coaches) when you've slipped out to get one for yourself?
• brought a board game to share with others as they wait for their session to start?
• baked (or bought) a cake for the stall, or cooked a sausage or stood behind a table keeping the flies away?
• played the lute (or mandolin or banjo) on the edge of a training session and so contributed to a fun vibe?
• taken a minute out of your morning to be kind to some little kid who looks confused about why their fencing gear is in a tangle?
• gotten out of bed to give your kid a left to fencing when its cold and rainy and you'd really rather not?
• shared your enthusiasm for the Club with your friends and got them thinking they might come and give fencing a go?

I hope you get my point. And thanks! For your skills, your time and your care.

Everyone here is a volunteer. That's why this place is so wonderful and that's well worth celebrating.