Volunteering spotlight: Sophie becomes a Beach Guardian

Meet Sophie from Padstow Holiday Village

Did you know that we offer our staff two paid volunteering days per year? It’s one of the ways we support local projects and charities in line with our B Corp certification and values, enabling our team to develop skills and enhance their wellbeing.

Throughout 2023, Sophie who’s usual role at Padstow Holiday Park is Reception Team Member and Social Media Advocate, banked paid volunteering time to support Beach Guardian in Cornwall who host county wide environmental projects.

A day in the life of a Reception Team member and Social Media Advocate includes welcoming guests, writing and posting creative social media content and supporting check in unit checks. Sophie’s volunteering experience was quite out of her ordinary on various windy Cornish beaches!

“I love joining community beach cleans and when the Lovat Parks Volunteering Scheme was announced I jumped at the chance to volunteer at more Beach Guardian events. The Beach Guardian team and their wonderful volunteers hold events throughout the year that look after our local beaches and environment.

I have supported volunteering events with Beach Guardians including Christmas tree planting to conserve sand dunes, a very wet and windy beach clean, and sapling planting at Trevisker Community Meadow. All the events I took part in were incredibly rewarding; not only are you doing a good thing for the planet, but you also help you own well-being and happiness by spending time outdoors and looking after the places that you love. I especially enjoyed the Christmas tree planting as a few of the Padstow team went together and we worked as a team to carry the trees across the beach to the sand dunes; it was a lot harder (and colder) than we expected but we pulled together and had a good laugh, it is something we will never forget!”

Rob From the Beach Guardian added; “Beach Guardian host community beach cleans on the local beaches between Padstow and St Merryn. We had the great pleasure of being joined by the staff from Lovat Parks. We’ve kept in touch and they have been inspired to bring together their Cornwall Parks – Padstow Touring Park and Sun Haven Holiday Park to support the local environment and develop sustainable tourism. We’ll be helping them with equipment and information to share with their guests to enable them to engage in local initiatives. We look forward to hosting more community beach cleans in the future…”

Beach Guardian are also supporting Trevisker Community Meadow; a 5 acre rewilding project just outside Padstow. Staff from Lovat Parks have volunteered here to help plant out thousands of saplings. The Meadow supports individuals, businesses, schools and volunteer groups to get people to connect with nature. It’s very beneficial for people’s mental and physical wellbeing. We look forward to future collaborations in the future and are very grateful for their volunteering commitment that benefits the local community.

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