Volunteering

There are lots of great volunteering opportunities in the borough, where you can help our local community, make a difference to other people's lives, improve your mental and physical wellbeing, and help protect our environment.

Parkrun volunteers

Botwell Green junior parkrun is coming to Lake Farm Country Park in February 2025.

Are you a running or fitness enthusiast or someone who is looking for an opportunity to do something meaningful? There are several volunteer roles needed for parkrun.

Parkrun and Lake Farm Country Park are looking have these roles available:

  • Event Director
    Each parkrun event is managed by one or two event directors, who are responsible for ensuring the event is delivered appropriately, for building relationships with landowners, and for liaising with parkrun HQ.
  • Run Director
    The run director has overall responsibility for event safety and oversees proceedings during the event and at the finish line. They must be near the start and/or finish area at all times. The run director has the ultimate authority to decide whether the event should be cancelled or postponed or if an adjustment to the course is required.
  • Warm-up Leader
    This role involves taking the juniors through a short pre-defined warm-up routine. It is an opportunity to not only warm up the children but to help foster a fun environment. parkrun has developed a warm-up routine that should be used. 
  • Marshal
    Marshals at junior parkrun events are positioned no more than 100m apart and maintain line-of-sight to the next marshal. Marshals perform a variety of tasks which include giving directions, ensuring safety on the course and cheerleading.
  • Timekeeper(s)
    The timekeeper is responsible for recording the finish times of all participants at the event (using the Virtual Volunteer app). Ideally, events should use two timing devices to protect against losing one set of times.
  • Barcode Scanner(s)
    This volunteer scans the personal barcode (using the Virtual Volunteer app), followed by the barcode on the finish position token, to ensure every participant who completes the course receives a result.
  • Tail Walker(s)
    The tail walker role is a friendly face or faces, who stay right at the back of the field and should be the last to go through the finish funnel, ensuring that everyone is accounted for.
    A tail walker is entitled to receive both a volunteer credit and a walk/run credit (providing they brought their barcode along to be scanned) when carrying out this role.
  • Funnel Manager
    The funnel manager is responsible for the whole finish area and is primarily focused on ensuring the participants move smoothly and swiftly through the finish funnel. At junior parkrun we have children as young as four participating unaccompanied, and when you add in parents trying to shepherd their own children as well, this can make the finish funnel a challenging area to manage. It's critical therefore, to both the safeguarding of our younger participants and efficient event delivery, that every junior parkrun finish funnel has a dedicated volunteer who's sole responsibility is to ensure the children pass through this area safely and appropriately.

Register your interest in this opportunity

Page last updated: 26 Nov 2024