 Verona |
GET ENVOLVED! - what our volunteers say |
I joined Envolve in Spring 1997 when it was still known as The Bath Environment Centre, and was established as a response to the Agenda 21 initiatives arising out of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1995. This was in the old bank building at 34 Milsom Street, now the Loch Fyne restaurant. We answered questions from the public and fielded all sorts of things at the front desk!
The enthusiasm of the early volunteers meant that a vast archive of information about anything to do with the environment was collected and had to be managed and filed. The internet has put paid to the need for all those folders, leaflets and pieces of paper, but I had a hand in trying to create a library. I got my introduction to going 'online' there in the Information Resource.
In that first year of my joining there was funding crisis and we shook boxes on the street trying to get enough money to stay open. Then our fortunes changed and we got funding from various sources for specific projects. I saw the staff rise from one and a half paid posts to seventeen workers at one point, and a regular inhouse magazine called Thumbprint was printed.
When the image (and name) was changed to reflect its involvement with a wider community than Bath it was also time to move to different premises and we left the five-storey building for the South Vaults at Green Park Station. I have seen permutations of many project leaders, part-time workers and volunteers. Many friends were made. Many ideas taken on board.
I have been led into fields I may not have tackled otherwise. One result of being 'in the loop' was that I put in for an Earthwatch Millennium Award in 2001, to go on a conservation trip with a skilled team of scientists, open only to over 50's! I took part in a trip to the Bahamas to collect data about a remote coral cay off San Salvador island with a team who had monitored the same site to note climate change effects on coral for the ten years previously.
I've pitched in at every level from stuffing envelopes to mounting exhibitions. I like to think I've made a valuable contribution, if only that I've stuck with it through thick and thin, and maintained a relationship of amicable support. I'm now collating information for the very website on which this item appears. I'm a veteran of over 60. I'm called artist, poet and environmentalist. With the help of Envolve, I've developed several aspects of myself. Even started cycling at age 55! It has been a life-enhancing involvement.