Interview with Gwin Hopkins, a volunteer with a local brownies group, 24 August 2016, Cardiff

Description

Interview with Gwin who used to volunteer in a nursery in Splott and currently does some occasional volunteer work with a Brownie group in Rhymney, Cardiff.

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The Chronicle Project is a community heritage project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and run by VCS Cymru with the aims to document the history of volunteering in Cardiff, from 1914 to 2014.

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HS = Hannah Sweatapple (Interviewer), GH = Gwin Hopkins

[Helping brownies - 0:05 to 0:41]

GH: I volunteered with the brownies and I’ve gone helped cooking you know, bake stones on St David’s day. Quite a lot of different things we’ve done with them. And as I say I dressed up and as the queen for them. And I went a second time, now why did I do that… must have been when it was the… Some special thing and she was represented in the brownies, you know.
HS: So is that brownie group in Cardiff?
GH: Yes, yes in Rhymney. That’s where my daughter lives.
HS: How long have you lived in Cardiff?
GH: Me, well I lived...Do you know where Whitchurch is? I lived in Whitchurch until I was 21 and then I got married and I came down to Adamsdown then in 50, because we had to stay for a year with my mum. And I came down 1950 so that’s fifty, sixty... 66 years, I’ve been actually in Adamsdown but that’s so different to what it was you know, I was the only young person living in the street then, they were all elderly people with big families. I’ve stayed there, don’t know why really because I am on my own. It’s too big a house for me really.

I think at least I know who the neighbours are and I know I could go to them if I needed anything, you know. As I say there isn’t a lot I can really tell you. We used to have the children then, if they had a party we would give them a party in the nursery. One cake I made was like a princess castle and different things like that for them. But it was a nice atmosphere you know, very, very friendly place.
HS: So this nursery, was it in Adamsdown too?
GH: Yes, do you Tredegar, do you know the infirmary, it’s the other side of the road. But then they left there, the girls because they went to high school. And then I started looking after my 3rd granddaughter then and so I thought “That’s enough now”.
HS: So what motivated you to volunteer?

[Motivation to volunteer - 3:06 to 3:55]
Gwin: Well I went there one day and the nursery nurse was there and she was quite vexed. And I said, “You’re not on your own are you, Ann?” And she said, “yes, Justine, who was the nursery teacher, has had an accident”. Ann was the nursery nurse. And I said “well if you want a hand, I can give you one any time.” My grandchildren, who I did look after were in the nursery you see. So she said, “Are you sure?” And it just started from then. I said “I’ll stay now if you want me too”. And then the teachers used to come over for lunch, it was really, really friendly.

[Fundraising at the nursery - 3:55 to 4:58]

We used to make pizzas with the children and they used to decorate it all. I used to make things earlier and the staff used to have it with their break. Well they paid for there’s which helped pay for the food. But we raised quite a bit of money really by doing that, bought all the nets, because we didn’t have blinds. I don’t know who is there now because I am not involved with it now. It was a nice time and I had lost my husband just a year previously so it was like a new lease of life for me, having something else to do.
HS: What do you feel like you have personally gained from volunteering?

[Gains from volunteering - 5:06 to 6:59]

GH: Well I think for me it was company and helping. It was appreciated. And it was like going from home to home really. I knew my grandchildren were safe because they were in the school you know. I would wait until it was time for them to come home and then they would come home with me. I used to go on the trips with them and they went to the caves and St Fagans castle and I used to go swimming with them because it was a man who went with them and they didn’t have anyone to volunteer to, like a woman for the girls changing rooms.

So I used to go and do that with them. I suppose really I could have been paid for it but I wasn’t and I didn’t need to be paid. But I used to do all the things that they did. Yes, it was very nice. I can’t think of anything else. I mean now, all the children pass my window as I live in my front room and knock the window and wave and knock the door and ask if I want any shopping. And it’s strange because, well one of the grandmothers, she comes her in the afternoon, always calls me “Mrs Hopkins” and yet her grandchildren call me “Gwyn”, which is strange. And she still calls me “Mrs Hopkins”, and she is 60 odd.
HS: So when did you stop volunteering?
GH: Oh, how old were they? Beth must have been about… She is 16 now so it must have been about 16 years ago. When she was born I thought it was a bit too much, taking her in with me. Because I used to take the one baby in with me for some time. She would be in the nursery with us in the pram but I think some of the schools could get more involved with things, making it more like home to home for some of them. But then the regulations are on to so much now.

I can remember my grandson went there and we’d got the alphabet all around my living room and I would always call “K” for Keith and Kelly was his cousin and “J” was for Jane, his mum and for him, Jamie. When they were reading out the alphabet who Mrs Lawrence and she would say “K is for Kite” and he would say “No, K is for Keith.” I had to say, “I am sorry Ann but that’s the way I taught him but said would be saying it and he would be moving his lips but not saying it, “No, Keith”. But as I say there is not a lot I can tell you.

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