Local sporting personality Mark Alleyne, MBE, Head Coach and Club Captain of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, will be joining the line-up of sporting enthusiasts at Bristol University for the first Sport Volunteering Fair ever to be held in the UK.  The event will take place on Monday, 25 April. 

The Fair is being hosted by the Bristol Sport Education Forum (BSEF) and funded by Sports West and Bristol Year of Sport.  The Fair will give members of the public the chance to find out about exciting new sport volunteering and training opportunities in the region.

Bristol Sports and Community Development Officers will each have a stand at the Fair together with national organisations such as Sports Leader UK, the Red Cross, Sports Coach UK and Volunteering England. There will also be information on a selection of volunteering, coaching, leadership and first aid courses to help get people started.  To kick off the Fair, a variety of sport demonstrations from local community clubs will take place, including a gymnastics display, wheelchair basketball, judo and boxing.

The event has particular significance as 2005 has been designated the national Year of the Volunteer by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon Gordon Brown, MP. The event is one of the initiatives planned in conjunction with “Bristol City of Sport” whose theme for 2005 is sport volunteering.

Bob Reeves, Director of Sport, Exercise and Health at the University of Bristol, said: ‘It is really appropriate that the first ever Sport Volunteering Fair should be held this year in Bristol.  The University’s Centre for Sport, Exercise and Health is actively increasing its involvement in community sports projects that need support. We have been encouraged in this by University funding and also by means of excellent collaboration with several highly motivated partners, such as Bristol City Council and the University of the West of England.

‘One of the legacies of the Bristol Year of Sport, with which we were closely involved, was some financial support for the Sport Volunteering Fair.  It is widely recognised that the future of community sport depends on the active involvement of large numbers of people who give freely of their time to help others.

‘I am proud that my colleagues have been so keen to be involved in this initiative, and am sure that it will be a great success.’

The free event will take place from 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm at Coombe Dingle Sports Complex, Coombe Lane, Bristol.