Volunteering with Up and Running Guelph
UR Volunteer - Jane, 2022
I recently read an article written by the Canadian Knowledge Hub for Giving and Volunteering in 2018 called What Keeps Canadians from Volunteering More? The findings revealed that a “lack of time was the most frequently reported barrier, followed by being unable to make a long-term commitment to volunteering.”
Over the last few years, the disruption in our daily lives has meant that even more people are feeling overwhelmed and short on time. This encouraged me to reflect on our volunteer base at Up an Running Guelph where, each year, our walking and running programs rely on over 4500 volunteer hours. I considered, ‘what inspires our incredible team of volunteers to show up each week to be there for others?’
One of our program volunteers, Jane Campbell, offered to share her story of acceptance and the power of Nature in response.
I took a leave of absence from my teaching position in 2020. It was to be a year of travel, and also a year to volunteer in my community, to feel out where I might best be of service. The universe had other plans with the pandemic landing solidly in our midst back in March 2020, meaning travel was off the table and in-person volunteer opportunities were almost non-existent.
At first it felt like I had been thwarted. I would walk around my neighbourhood, stomp around the Arboretum, hike in the woods of Ignatius feeling something had been done to me! And then, gradually, an ease and acceptance of what was, settled in. Nature was the balm and I daily partook. Breathing in the moments outside, breathing out—it was a lesson in being present to the beauty of the natural world and to what was, rather than wishing it were something else.
The missing piece was the community connection and this was finally available to me more than a year later when I started volunteering as a walking mentor with Up and Running. It felt great to reconnect with people in real time and form and share a story, a laugh, silence and a deep understanding and appreciation for the healing powers of Nature and the need to feel connected to one’s community.
I stumbled across a quote by Tessa McWatt from The Globe and Mail that I had jotted down in my journal on Saturday, August 8, 2020. The article was titled The Power/Promise of the Pandemic. It clearly spoke to me then and deeply resonates with me now: “It’s a hope that we align our responsibility to ourselves with our responsibility to others. And it’s time for us all to engage in radical, mutual care to repair our relations with each other and the planet. […] You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.”
This is why I walk in community with Up and Running Guelph, on Guelph trails, with other beings who see the value and gifts of Nature and being present together.
A quiet trail through a forest on an autumn day (Credit: Valentin)
