Celebrating our phenomenal Vitamin Sea Project volunteers

This week (June 1st–7th) is Volunteers’ Week, so we thought it would only be fitting to celebrate some of the amazing people who volunteer to deliver our Vitamin Sea project. 

Earlier this year, we shared how we brought our lead volunteers together in Devon for a weekend of knowledge sharing and fun. 

As Lorna, our Chief Operations Officer explained, the aim was not only to share our experiences, but also to help everyone feel more connected. 

“We’re all connected to the ocean and we all have that as a common denominator, so we thought it would be a real opportunity to engage our really important people who we couldn’t run this charity without.”

It’s safe to say that our community definitely connected in ways we couldn’t have imagined at the start of the weekend – it was an incredible weekend.

During those two days, Cal also spoke to several of our volunteers to find out more about what they do for Seaful and why they find helping others create ocean connections so rewarding. 

You can listen to all the conversations on this week’s episode of the Our Ocean Podcast too.

Craig is our lead volunteer in Shropshire, which might sound like an odd place for a Vitamin Sea Project. But he does an incredible job of helping children from a land-locked region to understand how the rivers, reservoirs and oceans are all interconnected. 

Together with a team of other volunteers, Craig runs sessions for children from schools in inner city areas at Chelmarsh Reservoir.

“We introduce them to the water, what it means to them and the connection. But because the reservoir pulls the water from the River Severn, and that reservoir then is used for drinking water, we can identify a connection for the children. We help them understand that what they’re drinking at home comes from nature, and that they have an impact on it if they’re polluting our rivers and streams that feed our oceans.”

Much further north, Linn runs our Vitamin Sea Project taking children from inner city Glasgow schools to the Isle of Arran to go snorkelling each summer. She delivers these sessions in partnership with COAST, the Community of Arran Seabed Trust.

“A lot of the time, we have young people who’ve never been to the ocean before. Or they’ve maybe been to the sea but not been in it, not engaged in it. So we take them on the ferry to Isle of Arran, and that’s where the journey starts. They already get super excited and start spotting jellyfish and everything, and then when we get to Arran, we snorkel in the marine protected area in Lamlash Bay. We also learn about the no-take zone there, we go to the visitor centre, and it’s always a fantastic day.”

In Devon, Evgenia started out as a beneficiary of Seaful’s sessions when Lorna ran paddleboarding sessions for the Ukrainian community. Now she is in the process of qualifying as a paddleboarding instructor and helps deliver Vitamin Sea sessions alongside Marc and Lorna.

Evgenia shared what being part of Vitamin Sea sessions meant to her when she had only just moved to the UK to escape the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“We didn’t know anybody, and Lorna attracted us, helped us stay calm and feel simple joy to connect with nature. So it was very important for me. I attended each session, and as I have previous knowledge about paddleboarding, I could very quickly explain to the Ukrainians and translate so I was helping with communication. It helped me very much to go on the sessions and because of this I wanted to volunteer to grow this project because it’s really very important for the community, and I think that more kids should try this to feel the joy of being on the water.”

Cal asked everyone what it means to them individually to be part of the Vitamin Sea Project. Their responses reinforced why Seaful’s work is so important. 

Craig told us, “I’m passionate about our river, what it provides for our mental health, but also our drinking water, and seeing the change in it through pollution and plastic entering the river is quite upsetting. If we don’t do something about it, then it’s not going to get any better. We know that our rivers, our tributaries, feed our oceans, and that’s where we get our oxygen from, and it’s a cycle, isn’t it? It’s the water cycle, and being part of Seaful helps me contribute to that. I do sometimes think about if I’m doing enough, but my good friend Jo Moseley often talks about how doing one thing can make a big difference.”

Sarah, who volunteers with Craig at Chelmarsh Reservoir, told us why she comes back every year to deliver paddleboarding sessions as part of the Vitamin Sea Project.

“I really enjoy the sessions. I love watching the children go from when we start off. You obviously have got the keen ones at the front, but you’ve always got those children who feel they can’t do it, they’re unsure about how they’re going to do it, and they stand back. I’ve had children say, ‘Please don’t leave me, miss,’ and you know, hold onto me, and be really very scared. Then as the session goes on, you see them relaxing and laughing. I love watching those children who at the beginning won’t even stand, and at the end they’re just moving around with just freedom and confidence, and I hope they take that with them.”

Linn shared that she loves seeing the children’s journey from potentially feeling anxious about getting in the ocean to loving every minute.

“Once they start, and they get into the sea and they just let go, you hear the squeals of excitement. On one of the last trips, our snorkel instructor there, Brian, said he wishes he could bottle up [the sound] because it’s such a beautiful, magical sound of these kids being kids, and experiencing this for the first time. You just know that it’s had an impact.”

These are just some snippets of what our wonderful volunteers talked about – and Cal covered a lot more with them on the podcast, so check out the latest episode to hear more about the amazing work our volunteers do around the UK in delivering our Vitamin Sea Project!