Walkers, joggers and runners at weekly parkruns chase many achievements and milestones; if it is not a personal best (PB), then it is a milestone.
Apart from the running/ walking milestones, parkrun boasts volunteer milestones as well, and, one such milestone was recently achieved by the 79-year-old Dan Govindjee when he completed his 25th time as a volunteer at Ruimsig parkrun.
Dan said his parkrun journey began in February 2018 and he decided to do his bit as a volunteer because the parkrun’s success is wholly dependent on volunteers. “We are constantly reminded of that, if there is no volunteers there will be no parkrun. I started volunteering because I owe it to me fellow parkrunners to ensure that we have a parkrun every week. As volunteers we come to know each other better and also interact with parkrunners. Parkrun become our Saturday morning extended family,” he said.
He added that there are many volunteering roles at the parkrun events; some allows you to earn a volunteer credit as well as a running/ walking credit, while others are solely a volunteer credit. “The roles include run director, time keepers, bar code scanners, token scanners, token issuers and token sorters, tail and park walkers, marshalls, event setup and close up, photographers and result processing as well as volunteer coordinator” said Dan.
The 25th volunteer milestone is a great achievement for him, and he said, “The 25th volunteer milestone is as significant as all other milestones, like the 50, 100, 250 and 500 parkruns. This allow one to purchase a T-shirt celebrating the milestone.”
He concluded by saying, “We, as parkrunners, need to ensure that we have a parkrun every week by volunteering occasionally.”
The Ruimsig parkrun takes place every Saturday at 08:00 at the Ruimsig stadium and is a free event. For more information visit their website.
