Volunteer

Big Bear Events cannot happen without the help of a dedicated bunch of awesome volunteers. Big Bear Events is really just me - Paul! I organise everything and do all the work before race day but there is no way events like ours can happen without a small dedicated team of top notch volunteers on race day. If you’ve been to our events before you may notice many familiar faces - Ann and Dave have volunteered at every event (thanks mum and dad!) and a handful of others have volunteered multiple times.

As much as we need top notch brilliant volunteers the job isn’t difficult either! If you can smile and be helpful your 95% of the the way there! I wont ask you to stand on an outpost for 6 hours in the rain, that’s a promise! Our runners are appreciative rather than demanding and even the serious ones focussed on every second are incredibly grateful. They might just wait until after to say thank you!

So if you are looking for a nice day out in a beautiful setting while filling your running karma bucket to the brim read on. I’ve put a “typical day” piece together here. I put requests for help out in our volunteer Facebook group normally. Joining is no obligation to volunteer though - I appreciate midweek events can be tricky to run at, let alone volunteer! If you aren’t on Facebook just send me an email. I’ve tried to add as much information as possible but if you have any more queries send me an email I’m happy to answer anything not in the Volunteer FAQ’s.

Thanks,

Paul

6 Hour and 10K events

Volunteers who help us all day at our 6hr and 10K events get...

  • Gift Card on your account equivalent of the race entry (to be used at any future event, effectively a free entry)

  • Tasty Big Bear drink

  • Lunch (not just the aid station food but you’re free to have some of that too of course!)

  • Treated like heroes all day from all the runners (and us!)

  • Running karma and a little glow on the inside!

  • Parking fees paid for the day

If you want to run on the day you could even volunteer for set-up/pack down and run the other half of the day? If your other half/ parent etc. is going to support why not make them help and get you a free spot (they could sneak you an extra Jaffa Cake on each lap!).

If you’re able to help for part of the day then we’ll happily say thank you with free parking and a Big Bear drink - just let us know!

For our evening 10k evening events we're looking for specific tail runners too - run the distance and get a free entry!

Please check the dates and locations on the event page and let us know when you could help here

TrailFest

We massively appreciate all help be it for 5 minutes or the whole day. Without your kindness, time and altruism events like this just could not happen. Please understand we are all incredibly thankful! For these event we require a lot more volunteers per runner than at our other events, some for relatively short periods of time. There are some volunteer blocks that are important but only last an hour but there are others that are just as important and last 8 hours, it seems fair the reward is slightly different.

The Gift Card value is based off the most expensive ticket price and how long you’ve helped for. Helped all day - 100% of the headline event. Helped for 50% of the time (morning or afternoon usually) then it’s 50% of the ticket cost. So for example, if the most expensive entry is £80, help all day get an £80 gift card, help for half the day get a £40 gift card. It’s not about counting the pennies at all, just trying to be fair to those who help out for longer - but obviously being hugely grateful and appreciative to everyone!

We can’t emphasise enough how thankful and important your help is. If you are able to help please get in contact here.