Behind the scenes at Bodie’s House: One student’s work experience week
Mid June, we welcomed a work experience student to Bodie’s House for a week, giving her an insight into the work of a small bereavement charity. It was a pleasure to have Esme with us and to share what happens behind the scenes.
We welcomed Year 10 student Esme Shipman to Bodie’s House who joined our fundraising team. With strong links to The Bodie Hodges Foundation, we knew Esme would be a wonderful addition to the team and were delighted to give her an insight into our charity.
“I know The Bodie Hodges Foundation as my dad used to work with Nick before I was born. My mum and Donna were pregnant at the same time, so when we found out that they had started a charity in memory of Bodie my dad wanted to help”.
He ran the Great North Run (a half marathon). Now he has run or walked the Great North Run nine times, and my brother has now done it twice. I tend to do the junior as I am not old enough to run the main race yet.
Freddie’s Festive Fun Run happens at the school my dad is headteacher at, so I tend to end up helping out. When we were looking for my work experience, as I am in Year 10, we ended up deciding on going to The Bodie Hodges Foundation.This is because I wanted to find out more about this amazing charity.
Esme’s family are huge supporters of The Bodie Hodges Foundation!
During my week I have been in helping out in fundraising office, doing a variety of things from laminating for the SEND Treasured Memory Bags resources, and even cleaning out the two outdoor stock cupboards with Harriet and Jacob.
This was my favourite part of the week because I love being hands-on, and it was really satisfying to see the finished result!
It has surprised me that there is soooooooooooooooo much admin and jobs to do but it’s nice as it means that you can never get bored unlike at school!
I have also learnt how much money has to be fundraised by the charity so it can run the service.
This showed me how much everyone’s donations are needed and how thankful the team are for them. I expected there to be less things to do before an event, but it is weeks away from the Golf Day and they have already got lots prepared!
Moments that stood out to me are how great both stock rooms looked after we gave them a de-clutter and when Harriet was a chimney sweep due to how much dust went on her!
I was particularly proud of how much I have got done as I didn’t know how productive I would be.
Some of the knowledge that I will take away is how much it takes to run a charity and help the public who are in need of support. I would recommend to people to complete their work experience in the charity sector as they are always grateful for what you have done, and all the team are so kind as they pretty much work to help people and raise money to help people.
Ruth Johnson, Fundraising and Communications Manager and Lucy Cervasio, Corporate Fundraiser shared:
“Esme’s objectives for the week were to meet a variety of different people and improve communication skills.
She got to meet all of our team and became more confident with us all across the week.
Esme worked very hard and got stuck in to each task and we are so grateful that she chose to come and spend her work experience time with us. We’ll see you at Freddie’s Festive Fun Fun, if not before!”
