Sharing the Space at the Lea Rowing Cub

Looking upstream towards Markfield Park.

Another chapter in my progress as a Canal & River Trust volunteer began with me leading my first event today.

This was a Share the Space event where volunteers actively engage with towpath users to try to put over the Share the Space campaign message encouraging all the different towpath users to peacefully co-exist.

My pre-event publicity had gathered together a small team of volunteers, including two new recruits, two with a bit more experience of events like this, and two old hands. That made for a very effective mix and we managed to give away over 250 of the London waterways maplets that carry our message.

There were a lot of cyclists and dog walkers there too, which with the rowers from the club and everyday people just out for a stroll on the towpath made for exactly the sort of mix we were trying to encourage. The dog walkers got our giveaway dog-poop bag dispensers, and a couple of cyclists got free bells to "tring!" as they rode along.

I'd been stressed the last couple of nights beforehand, working as hard as possible not to be under-prepared. But, barring having an effective way to count positive public interactions except by counting maplet giveaways, I think I managed to pull it all off pretty well. Now I've got to think about planning the next one - time to put together a quick poll of 'my volunteers' I think. (Apparently I have a team of volunteers now. 😳)

4 hours.