Supporting Quotes
Supporting Quotes
Published: 24 March 2016
It gives most of us enormous pleasure and satisfaction to give back. I love volunteering, I love the camaraderie.
Cassian Harrison, Channel Editor, BBC Four, said: “2016 is an important year for partnerships at the BBC as we look at what we can achieve when we work closely with like-minded organisations.
“The launch of the Do Something Great season is just that - a celebration of the fantastic relationships we form with key volunteering organisations and charities across the UK such as Do-It; Volunteer Scotland; Volunteer Wales and Volunteer NOW. With supporting content from BBC TV, radio and online, we are working together to encourage the public to get involved and Do Something Great in their local community.”
Donna Clark, Do Something Great season lead, said: “This is a great opportunity to showcase the terrific range of volunteering projects that the BBC supports, both on TV and radio. Volunteering has been at the heart of many of our great brands like Springwatch or DIY SOS, and the Do Something Great season enables us to bring together all these great programmes under one banner, and to enable the audience to find out about volunteering opportunities near them.”
Jamie Ward-Smith, CEO, Do-it.org, said: “Not knowing about volunteering opportunities or of charities and groups that need help are among the top five reasons that people give for why they don’t volunteer. Do-it.org is all about making it easier for people to make those connections and get stuck in, so we are delighted to be working with the BBC to inspire more people to do just that. With the help of the BBC’s quiz, and relevant search engines like ours, we hope that anyone can discover a volunteering opportunity to suit them - from actions that take minutes, to building rewarding relationships over time, there really is something for everyone.”
Helen Timbrell, Volunteering and Community Involvement Director at the National Trust, said: “As Springwatch At Easter presenters Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan recently discovered whilst filming at our Stackpole Estate, the National Trust relies upon the help of more than 60,000 volunteers to look after the special places in our care. Our places offer opportunities for everyone: from looking after rare breed cattle at Wimpole Home Farm in Cambridgeshire to helping to keep Pembrokeshire’s beaches free of plastic litter with the local community at one of our drop-in Beach Cleans. With the natural environment facing some real challenges over the coming years it's more important than ever that we all get out and Do Something Great for nature.”
Karl Wilding, Director of Public Policy and Volunteering at NCVO: “I’m really pleased that NCVO is working with the BBC on the Do Something Great season. Do Something Great will inspire more people to get involved in many different ways and help to make an even bigger difference to the causes the public care about. Do Something Great will run alongside Volunteers’ Week: The Big Celebration, the UK’s annual celebration of volunteering, taking place this year from 1 - 12 June. Together with the stories showcased by the BBC, volunteer-involving organisations across Britain will help to celebrate the amazing difference made by volunteers in their communities.”
Leesa Harwood, Community Lifesaving and Fundraising Director, says: "Volunteers are the lifeblood of the RNLI charity and the reason we have been able to save over 142,000 lives in the last 192 years. Last year alone, our courageous lifeboat crews rescued almost 8,000 people and saved 348 lives while over 20,000 people across the UK and Ireland volunteer their time to raise the funds that enable our crews to continue their lifesaving work. We’re proud to be involved in the BBC’s Do Something Great season and look forward to showing audiences the fantastic work RNLI people carry out in their communities."
Nick Knowles, DIY SOS presenter, said: “Having worked with over 20,000 volunteers on DIY SOS I’ve seen first-hand the power of volunteering - not only for the people helped but for the volunteers themselves - a sense of value, of being part of something bigger than themselves, of community and a real sense of achievement.
“New friendships are forged and a different outlook on the world we live in. Volunteering really can change people's lives and quite often, it's the lives of those who have volunteered that change the most. You can't change the world but you can change someone's world.”
Michaela Strachan (pictured with Chris Packham at Bempton Cliffs) said: “To quote Gandhi, ‘The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others’. For anyone who has been a volunteer, that definitely rings true. It gives most of us enormous pleasure and satisfaction to give back. It's very easy in life to think that it's somebody else's job to make the environment a better place, but often it's not. The only way some things will improve is if we all get involved, together we can make such a difference. I love volunteering, I love the camaraderie. It's my 50th this year, I've asked friends and family to buy trees and I have organised a planting day in a local after care centre for disadvantaged kids and I will get together a team of volunteers for a plant day. It will mean so much more to me than more scarves, necklaces and body lotion!”
Chris Packham said: “As a kid I was obsessed with nature and that led to an environmental awareness that meant by my mid-teens I was volunteering to protect red kites' and peregrine falcons' nests during my school holidays. Volunteering has always proved a rewarding experience for me and never more so then now because there are things we can do that will make a difference. We live in exciting times for conservation - we have learnt how to rebuild habitats and we have mapped and studied much of our flora and fauna. So this year I’d ask everyone to put what we have learnt into practice by volunteering to do something great for nature.”
Hairy Bikers' Si King said: “What we want to do with Old School is to bring our teens and old folk together to form partnerships and help each other grow, together. Hopefully it could make the world and our local communities a better place.”
Hairy Bikers' Dave Myers said: “We want to use the power of BBC telly to make a difference – to spur people into action. We’ll do our best and give it a go – it’s worth it!”
