Become a volunteerFor over a year now, a charity (Broxtowe Community Projects) has been running community meals in my area. These are a lovely and informal way to meet new people and consist of volunteers cooking a free meal and a craft or activity. Myself and my daughter started attending nearly a year ago as participants when she was just 10 months old and in that time we have had the opportunity to do so many things including:
- Planting herbs
- Making pizza
- Making pom-pom pens
- Learning about reducing energy bills
- Colouring
- Making bracelets
- Water fights
- Scavenger hunts
- Learning crochet
- Using an air fryer
- Making a draught excluder
- And of course enjoying lots of delicious food!
As I said, I was attending as a participant so I did not expect to complete my ‘sharing skills’ section here until one night we arrived to find that the activity was making macrame plant pot holders. After trying to follow some confusing instructions off google the organizer admitted that she had never done macrame and didn’t really know what she was doing (not in a bad way – she has run some truly amazing sessions for us). Luckily, I had made a few macrame things before (for other guiding badges, obviously) and could remember enough to make sense of the instructions. We do the same activity two weeks in a row so I was asked if I could run the next session. After going home and making a blue-peter-style ‘here’s one I made earlier’ example and refreshing my distinctly rusty skills, I enjoyed leading the session and everyone successfully made a holder using three different macrame skills.
Since then I have also been asked to run two knitting sessions, the first of which I have now done. This involved teaching how to cast on, do knit stitches and cast off. We are also discussing if there are other crafts I would like to run for future sessions. I am considering friendship bracelets on cardboard circles or some simple origami, but whatever is decided I am enjoying sharing my skills with others and making new friends at the same time.
