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Volunteers' Stories
Kate Fulton, volunteer at KC Shasha Centre for Talking News and BooksMy journey to volunteering was a simple one. About five years ago, after a 20 year legal career in the media, I needed a change from taking to giving. I had heard that there were such things as Jewish audio books and a Jewish audio magazine and wanted to become involved. I contacted Jon Kaye at the KC Shasha Centre for Talking News and Books and went to meet him.
Coincidentally, he was looking to start a new Jewish audio magazine as the one that was being produced called ‘Sounds Jewish’ didn’t have enough time for articles and magazine features that were a bit longer or more in-depth. And Jewish Extra was born!
Now working with a fantastic volunteer team comprising Jo Abrams, Martin Brownstein, Nathalie Dwek, Michael Radbil and Diana Toeman, we collate the magazine on the first Wednesday of the month – following lots of reading and cutting out during the month - and then the following Wednesday we are recording in the studio. It means that we are always reading and discussing matters of Jewish interest which are as diverse as cookery to politics.
And the best thing? For me it is the two-fold pleasure of spending time with an intelligent team discussing items of Jewish matters and.....oh, the letters.....those lovely sweet friendly letters thanking us, saying how much they enjoy listening to the tape, commenting with their own views on things that they heard.
Plans for the future are clear – we need to get our wonderful tapes more ‘out there’. Grandad’s birthday need no longer be socks, but a subscription to the audio service. Sadly, more and more blind, partially sighted or disabled folk are in need of entertainment each year, either in their own homes or care homes and we should, via our shuls and social structures, ensure that they have access to Jewish audio tapes.
I do enjoy the buzz of volunteering – in fact I do other activities too, including running a book club and teaching old folk how to use email and internet – selfish really as it makes me feel valued and valuable...
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contact us
To find out more about volunteering for Jewish Care, please contact:
Volunteers Department:
020 8922 2405
Or email us directly on:
volunteer@jcare.org