Volunteers' Week Blog: Meet Big Knit volunteer, Sam

Meet Sam, one of our brilliant Age Scotland volunteers.

Sam joined our team earlier this year and volunteers with our fundraising team as a ‘Big Knit’ Campaign Assistant, focussing on promoting the campaign to new or experienced knitters across Scotland and encourages people to take part in knitting little woollen hats to support Age Scotland.

Sam first got involved with the charity by fundraising and completing a John O’Groats to Lands End cycle. It was then she told us about why she was supporting the charity:

‘’I want to try and give the older population a voice so they can be heard and understood, so that when decisions are made they are taken into consideration.

"Lockdown and coronavirus has been hard for us all in many ways but I believe that it has been the toughest for the older population who live alone, that sort of isolation from society has disastrous effects.”

Following her fundraising, Sam noticed the charity was looking for a volunteer to support one of their fundraising campaigns, ‘The Big Knit’ and knew she would love to get involved. She said:

“I choose to volunteer because I feel too often that the older population is forgotten about. For example, an old friend of mine who lives alone went back to the pub after lockdown, which he used to visit every day. Last week he was refused service because he didn’t have the app and they only accepted contactless payment which of course he has neither. They simply turned him away and denied him a meal and some company.

"I hope that my work with Age Scotland will increase awareness of the charity and the great work they do so that in the future the older generation are always at the forefront of everyone’s minds and this type of thing doesn’t happen.”

Sam’s role includes promoting the wonderful knitting efforts of all the people who support our campaign, and she loves seeing and photographing all the lovely little creations:

‘’My favourite thing about volunteering is seeing how much everyone enjoys getting involved in the Big Knit. I love to see how passionate everyone is over their designs and the sense of community and achievement they get from one another who take part. Some of the tiny creations are amazing – there is some talent out there.”

Sam has loved volunteering with the charity and is an asset to fundraising team. She has been able to raise awareness of a fundraising campaign that everyone can get involved in during an extremely challenging time for charity fundraising and would not hesitate in recommending others to get involved with volunteering. She told us:

‘’I really recommend volunteering as you get a sense of accomplishment that you’ve made a difference especially to a cause that you feel very strongly towards.

"It’s really only a few hours of your time a week and I certainly look forward it, it breaks up my routine and gets me stuck in to something new and creative.’’

We are very grateful to Sam for volunteering with Age Scotland and supporting our work in this way.

If you would like to find out more about volunteering with us, please visit https://www.ageuk.org.uk/scotland/get-involved/volunteer/