Parkrun is celebrated for its inclusiveness and for helping promote the culture of running in South Africa and the world over.
The participants often receive all the plaudits for either beating or maintaining their personal bests or reaching a milestone.
But the volunteers, who help with organising events, rarely get a mention.
According to parkrun, the key to starting an event is to find the right people to lead an event as local volunteers to champion parkrun’s benefits to their community and to build a strong volunteer team to deliver the event going forward.
Volunteers are the people who ensure that parkrun events are successful and that all participants make it to the finish safely. They are the lifeline, guardians and champions of parkrun.
They make parkrun happen. Their job includes marshalling, timekeeping and result recording.
At the Ebotse parkrun’s 10th anniversary celebration on June 18, founder Iain Morshead emphasised the critical role that volunteers play in every parkrun event.
“We don’t talk about them a lot. The volunteers are behind the success of parkrun. It’s a good social engagement for them. They are out here cheering people on and helping out with everything.
“They don’t get paid anything. They are here because socially it’s great and they are contributing something to running,” Morshead said.
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Cara Fordyce added that the good job done by the volunteers often goes unnoticed as the focus is always on the runners. She said they breathe life into parkrun and that volunteering has many benefits.
“Volunteering is very good for mental health. I have had days where I felt down and didn’t want to run. I came and volunteered and felt better afterwards.”
Gary Jackson has volunteered 419 times. He takes pride in the work he does. He emphasised that volunteers should be respected and honoured because they too, play a critical role.
“I’d like to thank all the volunteers for being here every Saturday. Whether it’s cold, raining or snowing our dedicated volunteers are here.”
Jackson is on a list of dedicated volunteers who have done the job at Ebotse parkrun for over 100 times.
Chintan Patel, Ebotse parkrun’s run director, thanked all the volunteers for ensuring that their events are a success. He also thanked the following people for volunteering for over a 100 times at Ebotse.
• Andre Pretorius
• Carol Van Aswegen
• Diane Leigh
• Emsie Tolmay
• Johan Tolmay
• Karin Whitburn
• Keith Opperman
• Monika Clulow
• Nigel Rotherham
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