Singing and Volunteering? Support your local community!

Did you know in the last year we have supported over 600 groups through grant-giving and our charity partners? This is not just across the Regional Community areas – but over the whole of our trading areas nationally.

Well in this instance, a colleague from our Funeralcare group has reached out to his local community in an interesting way! Have a read of his story below and see how you can get involved with your volunteering hours.

Left to right - Ashley Wright, Funeral Director (Aldridge VLC) with Alan Hazel, Funeral Assistant/Hearse Driver VLC (Aldridge)

Hello, my name is Alan Hazel, I work as a Funeral Assistant/Hearse Driver at the Aldridge VLC.  I have worked for Co-operative Funeralcare since June 2016.  During my time here, I have been lucky enough to be able to share my hobby and passion with so many people in the Staffordshire and West Midlands areas. 

I have been singing from a very young age, having singing lessons when I was 8 years old.  Singing has been an important part of my life since then and I have been lucky enough to be selected to sing at many special events over the years, one of the major highlights was being one of the lead soloists for Proms in the Park in Lichfield, as there is nothing more magical than leading a park of 10,000 people in song.

As an employee of Co-operative Funeralcare and being encouraged to carry out my community hours, I thought this would be an ideal opportunity to share my singing in order to raise money for local people that are in need of our support.

During this year alone, I have completed 76 hours of community activities, visiting a wide variety of centres in order to raise awareness and the profile of Co-operative Funeralcare services, but also raise money for such worthy causes.  I have sung at many local nursing homes, social events and charity events. I love singing at these events as it is something that I really enjoy doing, it is a real delight to see the responses from the audience.  People really connect to music and some of the songs I sing bring back memories for them and can see pure joy and happiness from the people listening to me, even getting people that are not normally mobile to have a little dance.

I feel privileged when I am asked to perform, especially when I know that money will be raised from the event, even more so when I am asked to return for future bookings.  In October, I offered to help Catherine Care in Norton Canes to raise funds by running a ‘Night of Music’; this event was a massive success raising nearly £1500. In the last 12 months, I have been able to help local charities by raising a total of £2500. These are all worthy charities that make a difference to the community that we live in.

The Co-operative Funeralcare team have been fully supportive of my singing in the community and have given me time & opportunity to complete these bookings, so I am grateful to them for allowing me to do this.

Interested in volunteering?

At Midcounties we give our Colleagues up to 22.5 (pro-rata) paid hours to volunteer within their community. Volunteering activities can include (but not limited to) anything from gardening, painting, supporting with business plans, providing professional support, fundraising, working with schools etc.

Why don’t you get involved and find a local volunteering opportunity in your area? You can do this by yourself or as a group of Colleagues. For a list of opportunities please click here.