Volunteer Story (25) - William

William volunteers for the Greenfield Valley Trust a 70 acre site, extending from the A548 coast road at Greenfield to the town of Holywell.  The site reflects the varied and very long history of the area.  It contains some of the most significant and interconnected industrial heritage in North Wales and has a remarkable number of historic sites, including seven scheduled ancient monuments, plus a museum within its boundaries. He was nominated by the Volunteer Co-Ordinator and here is what she has to say:

Will has been volunteering for Greenfield Valley Heritage Park for nearly two years. In the last year alone he has been involved in a number of different volunteer activities.

This has included being a core member of our Historic Gardens project in which small group of volunteers researched and developed new areas of gardens for our Tudor and Victorian farmhouses.  Will has attended every Thursday for the last year to help on this project which has included landscaping the grounds, planting, weeding, making wooden arches and willow weaving. It has completely transformed the areas around the houses and Will has been a dedicated member of the group.

He was also instrumental in our Basingwerk Abbey Resource project which aimed to develop a resource which schools could use at the Abbey. Will developed ideas, took photographs and worked with younger volunteers and helped write, star in and edit a short film about a monk at the Abbey. On top of this Will designed and created the 31 page resource (both in Welsh and English) and volunteered at least 120 hours to this project (he also worked a lot from home in his own time).

Will has also developed many of our marketing posters and flyers including posters for events and projects. His design skills have also been used on the numerous family trails we have run over the last few years at Greenfield Valley. Will worked with me on an Explorer Bag project for families where he designed two different types of I-spy trails for older and younger children.

Will has also mentored young volunteers and supported them including a design for a newsletter. Will has also supported many events on site including Victorian Christmas and craft activities giving staff much needed help with busy events.

Will has also supported engagement projects including working with KIM inspire (a mental health charity for women) and Step up Step out (a mental health charity for Flintshire) during Science and Engineering Week. He has supported school sessions for KS1,2 and 3 pupils when we have schools visiting on site. He has also supported the delivery of assemblies at local primary schools.

Will has also worked with our assistant curator to develop and design interpretation panels for exhibitions.

Will has also shared his knowledge with other volunteers including training volunteers to make nettle twine for our historic gardens project and sharing photography skills and design skills.