Volunteer Now is appealing to people throughout Northern Ireland to give an hour or more of their time to volunteer for a charity this Christmas.

The ChristmasTIME campaign aims to encourage more people to get involved in a one-off or short volunteering opportunity as part of their festive celebrations.

Denise Hayward, Chief Executive, Volunteer Now explains, “Many charities and community organisations need extra help around Christmas with their festive volunteering opportunities – from helping with a food drive,  wrapping presents as part of Christmas fundraising, helping at parties or events to helping Santa at his Grotto!  By giving as little as an hour of your time to volunteer for one of these roles you can make a big difference to an organisation, a cause, or a family in need. The added bonus is that it’s fun and you come away feeling good too!”

One organisation who are embracing the call for volunteers is iCare Charity who organise Santa’s Gatelodge at Callan House, Milford.  Without volunteers they wouldn’t be able to run this annual fundraiser which enables them to grant iCare Wishes throughout the year.

To have a look at festive opportunities available near you, use the ‘volunteer search’ on our homepage and select ‘ChristmasTIME’ as your activity. Keep an eye on our social media accounts (Facebook & Twitter)which will also have a series of postings of opportunities for #ChristmasTIME

Or if your organisation has an opportunity during the Festive season that you’d like to promote, upload it now and tag ‘ChristmasTIME’ as one of the activities. If you need a hand to add or edit your opportunities, contact opportunities@volunteernow.co.uk

(photo L-R:  Cristina Quevedo and Belen Albor, volunteers with Volunteer Now, join Geraldine Green from Carers NI to encourage people to think about offering as little as an hour of their time this Christmas to a local charity.)