A rich life: A celebration of Volunteers' Week (1-7 June)
To consider how life is enriched by giving to others.
by Janice Ross
Suitable for Whole School (Pri)
Aims
To consider how life is enriched by giving to others.
Preparation and materials
- Lotto or raffle ticket, bank savings book.
- Quotes on whiteboard: ‘Giving time to help others has helped me, and has made my life richer’, and, ‘Volunteering has changed and enriched my life.’
- Bible verse: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’ (Acts 20.35).
- As this assembly will focus on the riches of volunteering, it would be helpful if teachers could ask for volunteers for simple classroom tasks during the week. Make sure that these children are thanked and encouraged for their willingness to help. Children will then be able to identify with the assembly lesson that volunteering can enrich our lives.
- For further information and inspiring stories, see: http://www.volunteersweek.org.uk.
Assembly
- Ask: How can we get rich? Show raffle tickets, bank savings book, etc.
- Show quotes on whiteboard. Discuss what they might mean. What kind of ‘richness’ are these quotes about?
Explain that many people in our community and in our nation volunteer to help others in lots of different ways. To volunteer means to offer to do something for someone else without any payment. In fact, the organization, Volunteering England, reports that 22 million adults in England volunteer to help others each year.
Ask: Who do you know who does volunteering? - Let’s check out the truth of these quotes. Does volunteering make our lives richer?
Ask if anyone in the assembly has done any volunteering this week. (In case the children don’t respond, ask teachers to be ready with names of children in their classes.)
What did you do? How did it make you feel? - The Bible says something like that. It says, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’
Think for a minute about Christmas. Although it’s lovely to receive a present, do you ever get excited waiting for your family to open a gift from you?
Many volunteers will tell you that they love doing what they do, that volunteering makes them rich in a way that money can’t.
(If you wish, you could read one of the inspiring stories from the Volunteers website.)
Time for reflection
Think about something you could volunteer to do for someone else today.
Picture how it would make that person feel if you volunteered.
Picture how it would make you feel if you did this task.
We are going to thank God for volunteers.
(Make these prayers appropriate to your pupils and community.)
(Invite the children to join in with the words, ‘We thank you’, if any of these volunteers help them in their lives.)
Prayer
Dear God,
for those who serve us in Brownies, Scouts, Boys’ Brigade,
we thank you.
For those who volunteer to help us get better at sports,
we thank you.
For those who volunteer to teach us about God,
we thank you.
For those who volunteer to drive us around for clubs,
we thank you.
For those who volunteer to care for ill relatives,
we thank you.
Amen.
Song/music
‘Would you walk by on the other side?’ (Come and Praise, 70)
