Become a volunteerEvent Experience
Megamix 2023 Service Team
In August 2023, I volunteered at Megamix, Girlguiding Midlands’ festival inspired camp held at Beaudesert Outdoor Activity Centre in Staffordshire, within the service team as I have previously volunteered at other local, national and international camps. My previous roles have included volunteering with the arts and crafts, as well as the event and entertainment teams at Spring Bank Camp, as part of the facilities and activities team at Sparkle and Ice and on the disability awareness team at Peak International Camp.
For Megamix, I was part of the Challenge Team, within the daytime program. Various activities were encompassed within this role including inflatables, pedal karts and the tented village. The tented village contained a chill out area with relaxing music and donated books to read, challenge activities like building the tallest tower from egg boxes and newspapers, making a wooden lantern as well as mindful activities such as decorating wooden coasters, paracord bracelets, origami and colouring. Due to my sight difficulties, my involvement was limited but this didn’t hinder me from volunteering. I helped with the tallest tower made from egg boxes and was the resources controller for the wooden coasters. Additionally, whilst being the resource controller, I was able to interact with the guides, rangers and leaders where I had many engaging conversations and learnt about each individual. Even though my volunteer role was within the daytime program, I took on additional roles within the evening team, mainly aiding with crowd control in the area whilst the bands were playing.
Despite my difficulties, I thoroughly enjoyed volunteering which was my first guiding festival style camp. I have experienced other festivals outside of guiding such as Download where I volunteered within the AIR Hub, providing customer service. This meant I was able to use some of my previous volunteering experience within my various roles like radio communication, some of the activities being similar to those at my previous events. There was also some personal development as well as I didn’t know anyone else on the service team and everyone was very welcoming and supportive of everyone’s needs. I would thoroughly recommend this to anyone who hasn’t volunteered on a service team before, to give it go as it may be scary initially but everyone makes you feel welcomed and are supportive.
