When you arrive in Aberystwyth over Freshers', it’s hard to miss the Students’ Union A-Team that are stationed across town and campus ready to welcome and help arrivals settle into University life.
The A-team are current students volunteering their time to help others, and this year we had an amazing team of 71 volunteers, who between them volunteered more than 1,400 hours over the past 11 days.
In addition to the day-time volunteering, the Students’ Union and Aberystwyth University worked in collaboration with St John Ambulance Cymru to provide night support, which helps those socialising in town to stay safe and access first aid or welfare support if needed. Ambulances are stationed in town, and both A-Team and St John foot patrols are out during the night ready to help those in need. Volunteers from St John are made up of local people as well as second and third year students, and are trained as part of the university’s ‘St John Ambulance Cymru LINKs’ society.
This collaboration between the Students’ Union, University and St John is now in its 5th year, and despite the COVID restrictions, careful planning and safety measures ensured that this support could continue to be provided this year.
Amy Goodwin, (Aberystwyth Students’ Union Volunteer Coordinator) said:
“We’re so proud that we were able to provide this support again this year, both during the day and night. Whilst this collaboration has become something we routinely do during the Freshers' period, this year there were certainly more hurdles to jump. It could have been so easy for the volunteers not to want to take part this year, but I’m so amazed and thankful that so many students still willingly gave up their time despite the circumstances.”
Deian Thomas, (Dyfed County Operations Officer) and James Cordell (Dyfed County Acting PR & Media Officer), St John Ambulance Cymru shared:
“We’ve worked with Aberystwyth Students' Union for many years and we were pleased to be asked to support again this year. As one of our county’s first events since lockdown was lifted, we faced a slightly different set of challenges this year. We had stringent COVID-19 measures in place, and we’re delighted we were once again able to provide high-quality support. It was fantastic to see so many students staying safe, social distancing and wearing face coverings.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Aberystwyth University, the Students’ Union, their students and our team of volunteers for their support, and we look forward to supporting at similar events in the future.”
A big well done and thank you to all our 2020 Freshers volunteers and organisers for their commitment to welcoming and supporting Aberystwyth students again this year.
*Please visit https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sjacdyfed if you would like to make a donation to St John Ambulance Cymru (Dyfed County).