From Burns to the Blog | A special CHANGES Volunteers Get Together
Hello and welcome to the very special CHANGES Musselburgh edition of the #Daneyblogs.
This blog
will be a fun review of the fantastic volunteer’s event held on Friday 29th.
It will tell you more about who CHANGES are, what my role is with them, why
they have a special place in my heart and of course…. how I introduced social
media to them through a comical game of ‘Burns
& Blogs’ bingo…
First of all….who are CHANGES?
CHANGES
Community Health Project are a Health & Well-Being focussed charity based
in Musselburgh > http://changeschp.com/. They are celebrating their 20 year
anniversary this year and just keep getting bigger and better!
Check out the following #CHANGESFacts:
·
CHANGES
open their doors to over 70 dedicated volunteers year in year out (psst! they
do have room for more if you want to volunteer with a brilliant charity >
email info@changeschp.co.uk )
·
CHANGES
have 7 well-respected board members who have been with the organisation for a
number of years
·
CHANGES
run an exciting range of courses/
programmes from well-being walks to singing for fun- check out the list here
> https://changeschp.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/jan-mar-programme-sheet-20161.pdf
So Dane… what is it you do with
CHANGES?
CHANGES Community
Health Project holds a very special place in my heart both personally and professionally.
Personally, they’ve really been there for me
when I’ve been down and struggling to cope with life’s pressures. I attended
their fantastic First Steps Towards Positive Mental Health & Wellbeing
course, and found it to be positively life-changing. I was in attendance with
warm, friendly, caring people and could talk openly about what mattered with a
comforting chocolate biscuit (who doesn’t love a chocolate biscuit!). I found that
having such a positive place to go to when things were on a downward spiral at
the time, was just a real help to me..
Professionally, they’ve opened their minds, hearts and
door to me and allowed me to use my PR and Social Media skills with them to
both develop myself whilst on the job hunt as well as take charge developing
their social media presence (as their Social Media Guidance Officer). Speaking of
social media … Check out CHANGES out on Twitter > @changes_muss and keep
your eyes peeled for the fully launched Facebook page CHANGES Community Health
Project coming VERY soon.
So tell us more about the Volunteers
night….
As a thank
you to us volunteers for all our hard work with CHANGES, the staff decided to
organise a fabulous Scottish themed Volunteers Get Together at the lovely wee
Inveresk Bowling Club filled with fun, food and certificates of thanks to each of us.
We had the
wonderfully talented piper David Spiers who kicked off and closed the great
evening: Check out his website here for more details: http://davidspiers.com/davidspiers.html
There was
fantastic, traditional Scottish music provided by the East Lothian Fiddles who
had us dancing all night:
There was
even delicious food provided by PIMM’s Outdoor Bar Services (from traditional
Haggis to stunning tasting Curry… we were spoiled for choice) | Check out their
website here: www.outdoorbarservices.co.uk
We had a Scottish
quiz (which my team the ‘Bingo Callers’ lost….but never mind…you can’t win them
all ;)) and there was even a game of ‘Burns & Blogs’ social media bingo
hosted by yours truly (with my lovely assistant Beth Ekman, CHANGES Volunteer
Co-ordinator)
BINGO…
So…. I thought
it would be a really fun and engaging way to introduce social media with a game
of bingo and call it ‘Burns & Blogs’ (see what we did there!).
To keep in
with the Scottish theme, we decided (Beth and I) to mix Scottish words in with
social media words, all with basic definitions on the back of the sheet so
everyone knew what was what..
…the sheets
were ready to go, the crowd were ready for the bingo (with their eyes on the
chocolate prizes)… and I was armed with my slips to read out and had my puns
and laughs at the ready….
Only one
problem I didn’t anticipate…. everyone had the EXACT same sheet…. So as I read
out…. everyone shouted BINGO at the SAME time!
We all
giggled, we all made jokes and most importantly, we all had a great time during
it. I flashed my smile, kept my cool and just laughed.
One woman (a fellow
CHANGES volunteer) approached me and said “oh son, that was honestly the best
game eh bingo I’ve ever played” which was really touching.
CHANGES have
played a great part in helping me laugh and see the funny side of life again. They’re
a fantastic organisation and I’m eternally grateful for everything they’ve done
for me.
Dane
