Darlington For Culture's Volunteer Co-ordinators Heather Carter and Glenda Lynn celebrate seven years of successful volunteering and look forward to the new partnership between Darlington for Culture and Darlington Hippodrome that will take the service into the future.

"It’s National Volunteers Week and a good chance for us to celebrate seven years of successful volunteering. It seems a long time since we began in the Arts Centre days but we are now entering an exciting new phase in our service. This follows the launch of Darlington Culture Volunteers in February this year which is an amazing partnership of Darlington for Culture and Darlington Hippodrome.

"We will continue to provide volunteers to support all the arts and culture events that we have done in the past but the partnership is a great opportunity to increase the scope of our volunteering opportunities. So no surprises to see Jabberwocky Market and Includefest in our 2017 programme but great to see Arts Spark, National Bookstart Week and History of the Hippodrome Exhibition as new events to support.

"There are fifty Darlington Culture Volunteers with the youngest being 16 years old. Some have been with us for seven years and some joined last week. We are very lucky to have such a diverse group of people prepared to give their own time. They are all committed to supporting arts and culture to thrive in Darlington and enable new events to come to the town. Only this week, following volunteer support at a children’s writing workshop, the author and creative writer Tracey Iceton said the volunteers had all been ‘brilliant’ and due to their support the event went really well. 

"So in National Volunteers Week the whole of the Darlington for Culture Committee and the Darlington Hippodrome staff join to say a massive thank you to all our volunteers for the hours they have given not only to enable events to happen but to make them very special. We hope you will continue to volunteer with us particularly as we all look forward to the opening of Darlington Hippodrome in the autumn."

Heather Carter and Glenda Lynn, Volunteer Co-ordinators