For more than a decade, Rush juniors has welcomed children aged 4 to 14 to Kenure Park on a Sunday morning for a fun 2km run. We were actually the first ever junior parkrun event in Ireland and have hosted thousands of kids at 470 events since our launch in late 2015. There are now 47 junior parkruns across Ireland every Sunday morning, so we like to think of ourselves as trendsetters!
Despite cheering on around 30 young runners each week, we’ve recently struggled to fill our volunteer roster and have come very close to cancelling the event on several occasions. We have a very dedicated core group of Run Directors - thank you all - but are in need of additional casual volunteers who can help with tasks like marshalling, timekeeping, tail-walking and barcode scanning.
There is no pressure to commit to helping out every single week; even volunteering once every few weeks would make a big difference. The time commitment is very small - we meet just before 9.30am and are usually packed up and heading home before 10.15am.

So, what’s the benefit of volunteering? Firstly, a big hit of Sunday morning dopamine! What’s not to love about cheering on a big group of kids as they storm through the woods? You’d be supporting your local community, meeting new people, and encouraging the next generation to stay healthy and active.

If you’d like to come and help out – whether it’s once, twice, or on a regular basis – please drop us an email at rushjuniors@parkrun.com. We’d love to welcome you.

You can find out more about Rush junior parkrun at www.parkrun.ie/rush-juniors/ , or on our Facebook page - www.facebook.com/rushjuniorparkrun/ .