25 Nov 2025
By Paul Rendall
Have you ever thought about volunteering? A couple of months have passed since I did just that and had one of the best experiences of my life.
After years of planning, the International Island Games was held in Orkney for the first time and was being billed as the biggest event ever to be held here.
Going back a bit further, I had left my previous career and moved back home to look for a new job and try some different hobbies. I took up archery as I knew a few people who were already in the club. My idea was that I might be good enough to compete in the games if I put my mind to it but life and work took over and I sadly had to drop some of my new pastimes.
About a year and a half ago the Island Games Association advertised that they were looking for at least 700 volunteers to help at the week-long event in July 2025. I filled out the form and was picked to help out at the Archery tournament.
The company I now work for has a great scheme called ‘Giving More’ which allows you to take 4 days out with your holiday entitlement to help at a charity event or volunteer for something, so I requested, and was granted the days off to cover the games. I attended 3 volunteers general training sessions, 1 meeting with the archery organisers, and then collected my uniform a couple of weeks before the games began. There was even a WhatsApp information/discussion group set up for everyone helping at the Archery event.
The opening ceremony and parade on the Saturday was epic! Watching all the athletes from 24 different islands from around the world was thrilling. I was marshalling on the route as thousands of people had turned up to cheer and wave and clap. It was very clear to see that everyone was having a great time. The beautiful weather probably helped a bit.
I missed the practice session on the Sunday but was there for the briefing at 8am on the Monday morning. The first day of competition. I was so green having never done this kind of thing before. I remember looking for my name on the volunteers board to see where I was due to be helping. There I was next to the subheading 17-25. I actually thought it was 24 hour clock telling me I wouldn’t be needed until 25 past 5 at the end of the day. It eventually clicked that it was targets 17-25 that I would be helping on and it was going to be a busy day. We would be required to move bosses, change faces, look for lost arrows (with metal detectors), generally keep everything tidy and safe, and then set up the field of play (FOP) for the next day. What a learning curve! Just over 21,800 steps later, I got home tired and achy but happy and looking forward to doing it all again the next day. Again, maybe the beautiful weather had helped.
The next day was to be more of the same, on targets 17-26 (having added another boss), but this time with the added pressure of RAIN! I thought, here we go, this is more like the Orcadian summer we normally expect. The waterproofs came out and we just carried on carrying on. A fresh breeze picked up though and by lunchtime we were in full sun again. It was tricky trying to change the target faces in the wind but we were starting to work well as a team, helping each other to get things done. Another fabulous, exhausting day done, possibly helped by the lovely afternoon/evening weather.
Wednesday and Thursday were the days for the medal matches which brought the next level of excitement and buzz to the field, and, dare I say it, stress! On one of the matches I was asked to go to the targets with the judge and enter the scores into the hand-held PDA which would be seen live across the world. I had never done it before but did it anyway. I’m not sure who was more nervous, the competitors or me. Thankfully it was very straightforward.
There wasn’t going to be as much boss moving during the day but there would be more face changing. The faces HAD to be pinned correctly. Horizontal pins for the top and bottom, vertical pins down each side and 45 degree angles for the corners! On one of the face change-overs I made our Field Manager, Kirsty, laugh when I noticed that one of the judges (who was ‘helping’) had put some of the pins in at the wrong angle. It amused me and made me giggle. I’ve always been a believer that if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing right. Mediocre isn’t good enough. I sometimes made mistakes and didn’t get everything right first time which attracted some frustrated comments but there would always be a polite apology afterwards.
As I said to Malcolm, the Competition Manager, no apology was needed. I needed to learn and it has to be right. And oh how right most of it was. Comments like “This field is world competition class” and “This is the best set up archery tournament the island games has ever seen” made us take great pride in what we were able to achieve here in Orkney. I think the incredible sunny weather helped a lot.
And just like that the competition was over. A few speeches and photos, signing a blank target face, and lots of handshakes later, we all gathered outside the sports complex for the medal ceremonies. I was commandeered as a volunteer to guard the medal table, occasionally having to stop people from squeezing past and knocking everything flying. It was a tough job but somebody had to do it. It did amusingly earn me a pin-badge from a spectator from the Falkland Islands for my crowd control skills.
There was a party in the local British Legion that evening, organised by the Orkney team, for anyone involved in the archery tournament, including all the judges, officials and volunteers as well as the competitors. It was a great way to finish an amazing week at the games. Did I mention the superb weather?
Well, I thought the week was finished but an email went out to all volunteers requesting more marshals for the closing ceremony on Saturday evening. I decided to reply, having been there at the start I might as well be there at the end. I turned up for the briefing where it was explained that they needed 12 volunteers to lead out each of the sports in alphabetical order for the athletes parade. I jumped at the chance and grabbed the Archery sign. All of the competitors from all the islands would line up behind the sign of the sport they had competed in and parade around the athletics track before forming up on the field behind the podium for the closing speeches and handover to the organiser of the next games in two years’ time. It was only then that I realised Archery was first alphabetically in the list of the 12 sports. The 24 island’s flag bearers paraded first and then I led the parade of athletes around the track to waving and cheering and a sense of relief that Orkney had managed to pull off its biggest sporting event ever. The immense pride it filled me with will remain with me for a very long time.
So what remains? An enormous number of wonderful memories, a uniform which I will probably never wear again (orange really isn’t my colour) and a few tan-lines on my head, neck and arms. If you ever get the chance to volunteer, I couldn’t recommend it highly enough. Just get out there and do it. I hope you’ll have as memorable a time as I have had, in a week in the middle of July in 2025 in Orkney when the crowds gathered, amazing sporting achievement was there for all to see, and the sun shone brightly.