How To Lend Your Labour To A Good Cause

At Euroffice Towers we’ve been concentrating on getting fit at work, but what about exercising our muscles outside the office and doing some good?

Here’s the idea: you #lendyourlabour to a social project, and as you’re helping you get trim, build up those biceps, and give something back to the #community.

While your office or business may already support a local #charity, there are lots of social organisations that would be grateful for some extra muscle power.

Now that spring is near, take a look at ‘sow and grow’ projects that help schools to create edible gardens.  A wonderful way to introduce children to healthy eating.

What you choose depends on where you live and work. If you’re anywhere near a river or waterway, you can get out of the office for a few hours and help to maintain canal banks and protect waterside #wildlife.

And it also depends on your hobbies and interests. Good with all things mechanical? Groups running working steam railways always need an extra pair of hands: you get to use your skills and preserve an important aspect of our heritage.  Choo choo!

Maybe you have a little time to spare, but can’t make a longer-term commitment.  Why not look for one-off upcoming events to lend your labour? For example, #ChineseNewYear is in mid-February and they’re looking for people to dress up as one of the Chinese Zodiac animals as mascots and take part in the parade celebrations in London.

Not everything has to be outdoors, though. I’ve come across requests for teaching drum classes, and someone to help clean fish tanks for an aquarium for a specialist day care centre. So all sorts of skills needed.

Of course, you’ve got to get your boss on board. Remind them that 15 May is Give & Gain Day, run by Business in the Community (BITC). According to BITC, people who volunteer come back to their businesses with a renewed outlook and a sense of pride.

And before your head gets too big from all the good deeds you’ve performed, take a moment to remember that people have been volunteering for many years. I came across some fascinating stories of what people did in the First World War, from collecting bog moss from Dartmoor to make into antiseptic wound dressings, to training blind people in poultry farming.

If you could pick any social project to help, what would it be?  Let us know in the comments and, if you know of a group that needs help, go and volunteer.