A day to celebrate

December 5th is International Volunteer Day - annually celebrated by the UN to highlight the work of volunteering organisations and charities, in helping their communities and making huge changes to the world we live in.

Our volunteers are an invaluable source of man power and ideas and we genuinely don’t know what we’d do without them. We probably wouldn’t have planted over 1.5 million trees, or run so many successful events, or been able to work with so many local communities to make the area a better place to live, work and play.

Volunteers sat at a bench

They do a huge variety of stuff across the organisation, including (but definitely not limited to):

Practical conservation – at the Millennium Country Park and our other 11 sites

Working on Reception – at the Forest Centre

Leading guided walks – across our sites

Looking after the Sensory Garden and monitoring mammals– in the Millennium Country Park

Giving talks and presentations – at local organisations and groups

Helping at events – both our own, and elsewhere

Delivering leaflets – in their local area, or further afield

Keeping our woods litter-free – as Wood Wardens

Processing firewood – at the Millennium Country Park

We’d like to give a pat on the back all of our volunteers, past and present, who have given us so much of their time and energy, and helped us to create the Forest of Marston Vale so far. It’s important that volunteers worldwide are recognised for the time they give to great causes – whether it’s a few hours a month or solidly throughout the year. We aren’t the only charity who rely heavily on volunteers to achieve their goals, so on behalf of all charities, to all volunteers – THANK YOU!


We have volunteers of all ages – all you need is the spare time. If you’re interested in joining us, you can check out our list of upcoming practical tasks here or you can send us an email, or call 01234 762608 for some more information.