Volunteer Newsletter

June 2017

Hello Everyone.

Well its several months since I wrote a volunteer newsletter. I can’t believe how fast time flies. The gap has been in part due to the fact that we have been busy setting up Darlington Culture Volunteers, enrolling new volunteers and transferring volunteers from the Darlington for Culture scheme. Of course I still remain a Committee Member for Darlington for Culture but the volunteer service is now very much the product of a partnership of Darlington for Culture and Darlington Hippodrome. I am very optimistic about the future of the volunteer service with many more events to support and lots of different training opportunities opening up for volunteers. In the past I have tried to send out a newsletter at least every other month and now will once again aspire to those timescales, to keep you up to date with all that is going on. Heather Carter, Volunteer Co-ordinator

  1. Volunteer Update

Fifty fourvolunteers are registered on our database today and in addition we are lucky to have sixnewvolunteers on our prospective volunteer list who are going through recruitment. Our next volunteer induction is planned for Saturday 1st July in Heritage Healthcare with final confirmation awaited

  1. What have we been doing?
  • Arts Festival 2017– John Dean, Chair of Darlington for Culture, tells us that ‘the Fifth Darlington Arts Festival held from 27th April to 31st May 2017 proved itself a success, creating a buzz around the town, featuring 64 events at 20 venues and attracting thousands of people. Audience numbers were healthy at many of the events and planning is now underway for 2018.’

Volunteers played a significant part in supporting the Arts Festival with a small team organising the Festival, lots of effort by everyone to support the publicity and individual events supported by volunteers including the:

Children’s Writing Workshop Wednesday 31st May, Cockerton Library.

  • National Bookstart Week –Suzy Hill the children’s librarian organised a great day for under-fives in the South Park on Wednesday 7th June. The event included Arts and Crafts, Pond dipping, Falconry, a Teddy Bears Picnic, Access to Books, a Nature Trail, Clowns and lots of bubbles. Four volunteers supported this great event Valerie, Gena, Alice and Jan.

Check out the pond dippers below

  • Researching/Archiving.

As we start a new era working with Darlington Hippodrome volunteers are needed to develop and support the theatre archives. To get the ball rolling twelve places were available forvolunteers to be involved in doing some research for planned exhibitions. OnFriday and Saturday 2nd and 3rd of June Paul, Teresa, Lesley Mc, Richard, Glenda, Carol, Alan, Valerie, Molly, Helen, Gena, Rhona attended initial training sessions to discoverwhat this would involve.

Glenda tells us: ‘Archiving for the theatre is going to be a massive project, one inwhich a significant number of volunteers have expressed an interest. The researching for specific exhibitions, which are coming up in the next few months,is part of the biggerarchiving project which has not yet got underway. The theatre asked for twelve volunteers to get the research work underway and we took these from those who had already told us they were interested in archiving. I think I speak for everyone when I say that we all very much enjoyed the sessions on 2nd and 3rd June and are looking forward to getting this work in full swing. On a personal level, I found I was strangely moved by the history ofall that has gone on in that wonderful building over the years.’ We continue to take the names of volunteers who are interested in the archiving project, please get in touch if you would like to be involved and haven't put your name on the rota yet.

  1. Events Coming Up
  • Darlington for Culture Annual General Meeting 6.30pm Friday 16th June. All new volunteers now receive the first year’s membership of Darlington for Culture (DfC) for the nominal £1 to pay for their voting share. You do not need to be a DfC member to be a volunteer but everyone is encouraged to join to ensure you have a vote that counts. After the first year the annual subscription is £10 usually paid by standing order. Even if you are not a member you are urged to attend the Annual General Meeting so you can find out what is going on and input into any decisions for the future. Remember every organisation we provide volunteers for has to be an organisational member of Darlington for Culture so this includes Darlington Hippodrome, Theatre Hullaballoon, Oxjam, Includefest, BigLittleGigs, the Forum and many more. Glenda and Lesley Mc are going to help with the registration and voting.
  • BigLittleGigs Saturday 17th June. This event is now a regular monthly commitment and is going from strength to strength. The live music concept is being fully stretched and the appearance of the Lions of Zululand at St Augustine’s in May is testament to this. Check out the picture below? Five volunteers helped out that day so thanks to Jo, Alice, Jackie, Susan and Jan. The next event is a Family Rave at the Forum and Debi will be doing the face painting and the other volunteers supporting the event are Glenda, me and Lorraine. Still space for another one if you fancy it.

The Lions of Zululand

  1. Hard Hat Tours of the Theatre Friday 23rd June

It’s very exciting to be getting back into the theatre even though it is in an unfinished state. I am looking forward to seeing how the refurbishment is going and to see if any more historic features have been uncovered. I hear that the ghost of Senor Pepe’s dog has not been seen and neither have his buried bones been found[do1](the dogs not Senor Pepe). We are planning to be in the Forum on the tour day for a coffee and chat so please if you are on the 1pm tour make time to come into the Forum for a coffee afterwards and if you are on the 2.30pm tour it would be good to meet up in the Forum at 1.30pm and have a coffee before you start. Whatever you do don’t forget to wear thick socks to avoid blisters from the heavy boots and please get lots of pictures, for our social media, of volunteers dressed up in the hard hats. Attendee’s names are on the Volunteer Programme but there are still vacancies on both tours so get in touch if you haven’t got a timed slot and want to come. I appreciate that many of you are unable to come during the working week so I am asking if an evening or weekend tour can be arranged. Have fun.

  1. Darlington Carnival Saturday 24th June 9.45am to 5pm – The theme of the Carnival this year is ‘Bookie Wookie’, a Carnival of Words denoting Children’s Books and Authors. The event starts in town with live music and then the parade makes its way to Stanhope Park where you can spend the day being entertained for free. There is a wide range of food and bar options, not to mention a great number of stalls supporting great local charities in addition to family games and rides. We will have our information stand/Teddy Tombola in Stanhope Park. John is leading on the stall supported by Mary Gravenor and Pam in the morning and Helen and Ana in the afternoon. Glenda is floating support as her choir is singing at the event. If anyone fancies helping we could probably do with another volunteer to cover the busy period in the middle of the day.
  1. Thanks to

The volunteer team who as well as myself and Glenda Lynn now includes Cait Barratt from Darlington Hippodrome. We are also ably supported by Lesley Mc who has taken on the unenviable task of chasing references for new volunteers for which we are very grateful. Firas has kindly taken on the role of Assistant Treasurer, he’s doing a great job.

  1. Social Media

Darlington Culture Volunteers(DCV) support lots of great events and organisations in and around the town and we want to showcase some of these achievements. DCV uses Instagram for photo-sharing ( so when you are volunteering at events, we’d appreciate your photos of activities, people, places or whatever interests you.

Please e mail photos to , including the events title, organiser, venue, date/time, plus a few words about people in the photos if possible.

Photography is allowed in most public places but might be restricted or require a permit in some areas such as museums, churches, shopping malls, railway stations and council/government buildings. If people you don’t know will be clearly identifiable in the photos, and if you are able to, please check that they are happy for photos to be posted on DCV social media. Molly is the volunteer who is doing a great job with Instagram.

You can also follow DCV on Twitter @DtonCultureVols for informal updates about events we are attending. Helen leads on Twitter and also supports our other social media volunteers as well as working with Rebecca Howarth from the Hippodrome on the DCV website which is coming soon.

Darlington Culture Volunteers will shortly be on Facebook so we are looking for someone to take on the management of DCV Facebook. Interested then let us know and we’ll talk you through what is needed.

From 1st July we will no longer be using this e mail address volunteerdarlingtonforculturegamail.com but switching to our new DCV one which is

Check your spam boxes to make sure our requests for you to volunteer are not piling up in there!

  1. Snippets
  • Cockerton Library – with all the political turmoil the future of Darlington Libraries remains up in the air but I continue to be very optimistic that there will be a future for Cockerton Library and there will be volunteer opportunities as part of that. Watch this space.
  • Small Grants Scheme – Darlington for Culture has launched its small grant scheme to support arts and culture to develop and grow in the town. If you are interested check it out on darlingtonforculture.org
  • Contact You - If you have changed your contact details recently please let us know and we’ll amend our records. Thank you
  • Contact Us - If you have any queries, questions, suggestions, amendments or offers of help then e mail (up to 1st July) or ring/text Heather on 07775996098
  • Want to Volunteer? - Please read this in conjunction with the latest version of the Volunteer Programme which you will have received via e mail. If you have seen anything you want to know more about and/or are interested in volunteering at then please let me know. Even if it appears there are no vacant slots it is often possible to accommodate willing volunteers in addition or in other roles or for the next similar event. Your enthusiasm is all that is required. Thank you.
  • Websites – check out the new Hippodrome website darlingtonhippodrome.co.uk and don’t forget there’s lots of news on Darlington for Cultures website darlingtonforculture.org

Knowledge is knowing what to say.

Wisdom is knowing whether or not to say it.

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