Your volunteering stories: Ellie Christie

Reading time: 2 minutes

Ellie Christie, Creative and Digital Marketing Modern Apprentice in Communications and Marketing, explains how she’s been helping out in her local community.

A photo of Ellie in her high-vis jacket.How did you get involved?

My friend’s mum, Pam, is one of the organisers and leaders of the Cockenzie and Port Seton Community Resilience Team. This team was created to help the community in times of need and it has never been needed until now. Pam put a call out on social media for members of the community to volunteer and join the team. I saw it and volunteered straight away. There are 96 volunteers in total – some that make the lunches, some that deliver the lunches and a few managers of the program.

Have you met anyone you might not normally interact with?

The task in hand for the team is to deliver lunch to the people of our community who are over 70 or are at risk from coronavirus as they cannot leave their houses. The village is split up into districts and you are assigned one district per shift. I deliver to district six on a Tuesday, where I deliver to nine OAPs and three children (kids who receive free school meals also receive a lunch) and then on Thursday and Saturday I deliver to district nine which consists of 13 OAPs and six children. I get to interact with lots of lovely different people (from a safe distance). I put their lunch on the door step and ring the bell and then I step three meters away and wait to make sure that they are ok. The older people are all living on their own so they are usually delighted to see you and have a quick chat with you.

What have you learnt from the experience?

It has opened my eyes to the community spirit that goes on within my village. All volunteers that are involved, from the people doing the deliveries to the people who are cooking the lunch, never complain. It makes me feel very happy when you see how grateful the people who are receiving these meals are. It also feels nice to be able to contribute to the national effort of this country to ensure we get through this extremely challenging time together.

Have you been volunteering in your local area? We’d love to hear about it. Drop us an email at bulletin@ed.ac.uk