{"id":53,"date":"2012-01-07T14:54:02","date_gmt":"2012-01-07T14:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poweredbyvolunteers.net\/wp\/?p=53"},"modified":"2013-01-02T16:25:21","modified_gmt":"2013-01-02T16:25:21","slug":"the-volunteering-phenomenon-of-the-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poweredbyvolunteers.net\/wp\/2012\/01\/07\/the-volunteering-phenomenon-of-the-decade\/","title":{"rendered":"The volunteering phenomenon of the decade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every Saturday, about 12,000 people take part in 5km timed runs all over the UK. These events are completely free and are organised by volunteers. Yes, completely organised by volunteers! The events are called <a title=\"parkrun\" href=\"http:\/\/www.parkrun.com\/home\" target=\"_blank\">parkrun<\/a>,\u00a0and are the brainchild of an inspiring philanthropist who believes that it is everyone\u2019s right to get up on a Saturday and run in a 5km timed event without paying for the pleasure.<\/p>\n<p>Paul Sinton-Hewitt founded the Bushy Park run, in Teddington, with just 13 runners in 2004. In 2009 he won a <a title=\"Runners World Heroes\" href=\"http:\/\/www.runnersworld.co.uk\/motivation\/heroes-of-running-2009\/3975.html\" target=\"_blank\">Runner&#8217;s World Heroes<\/a> award. This week\u2019s Bushy Park parkrun attracted a record 1000 runners and the organisation is within sprinting distance of their millionth run. On current turnout it\u2019s predicted to happen next weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Even if you don\u2019t run and aren\u2019t at all interested in sport, parkruns are a shining example of what can be achieved when a group of motivated people are facilitated to make something happen. There has always been a pool of potential volunteers -runners &#8211; who collectively stood to gain from free runs. But parkrun\u2019s runaway (!) success shows what can be achieved when a leader brings together the vision, the volunteers and a practical system that enables it to all happen. And it all happens every Saturday when armies of unskilled volunteers organise parkrun events all over the world.<\/p>\n<p>Have you run in a parkrun?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every Saturday, about 12,000 people take part in 5km timed runs all over the UK. These events are completely free and are organised by volunteers. Yes, completely organised by volunteers! The events are called parkrun,\u00a0and are the brainchild of an &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/poweredbyvolunteers.net\/wp\/2012\/01\/07\/the-volunteering-phenomenon-of-the-decade\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"","_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,26,8,23,22],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-be-a-volunteer","category-brilliant-examples","category-find-a-volunteer-2","category-sport","category-volunteer-manager","tag-volunteering"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poweredbyvolunteers.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poweredbyvolunteers.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poweredbyvolunteers.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poweredbyvolunteers.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poweredbyvolunteers.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/poweredbyvolunteers.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":614,"href":"https:\/\/poweredbyvolunteers.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions\/614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poweredbyvolunteers.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poweredbyvolunteers.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poweredbyvolunteers.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}