Every parkrun only happens because of the time and dedication of our volunteers. Many thanks to all of them, past and present. We are always looking for new volunteers. This page explains how to get involved.

How to get involved

Volunteering at Reading parkrun really couldn't be easier: simply email ReadingHelpers@parkrun.com, tell us that you would like to register as a volunteer, and whether you would like a weekly reminder, a monthly reminder or indeed if you don't want a reminder at all. The volunteer co-ordinator will send out a reminder email, either at the beginning of the week or at the beginning of the month (depending on which option you chose). If you feel like volunteering then just respond to the mail and you will be rostered when you want. If you don't want an email reminder, just email us whenever you feel like helping (early in the week would be best). On Thursday or Friday we will send out a roster to confirm who will be volunteering on Saturday morning.

It is possible to run and volunteer, as we always need people to set up the course before hand and to tidy it up after the run has finished. We are also keen to hear your ideas on how we can improve our run.

What would I do at the Event?

First, and most importantly, we never ask anybody to do anything they're not comfortable with. The tasks are straight foward and we will always show you what to do and how things work. You could be organising the finish funnel, operating the timer, registering the runners' positions or taking photos. We try to start people out on a general marshalling job, so they get a feel for how we operate. If you want a particular task, please let us know and we will try to roster you for that role. We ask that volunteers come to the run a bit early so that we can get things orgainised. We start setting up the course at 8.15am and we like all the volunteers to be ready to help at 8.30. Please come and talk to us on Saturday morning if you have any questions or would like to get more involved in helping at the run.

Do I get my name in lights?

We like to recognise and publicly thank all our volunteers, and your name will appear on our home page in the This Week's Heroes section. We also keep a log of what tasks everybody has done. To do this you need to be registered on our system. Most volunteers have previously run at one of our events, and so will already be on our system. If you have not registered, it's really easy to do so: just go to the parkrun registration page and fill in the simple form.

Points, glorious points

And there's more,.. We don't want our regular runners to be penalised in the yearly points competition just because they volunteered, so every runner gets full points for volunteering on up to three occasions per year.

Please join us

email ReadingHelpers@parkrun.com today.

Our volunteers really are the stars of Reading parkrun.

Next time you see them, tell them how wonderful they are.