Volunteer Life
Whether you’ve built in our play area, been to a birthday party or class at Imagination Station, or simply scrolled through our social media, you may have spotted one of our Volunteers in a bright Imagination Station shirt.
Maybe you've wondered what life is life as part of the Imagination Station volunteer family?
Well, below are some of the volunteering highlights throughout the life of Imagination Station!
End of year party! - Friday 11th December 2020
We celebrated the end of 2020 with our Volunteers, all dressed up ready for the holiday festivities. Our Volunteer Leaders ran an exciting icebreaker with the team that got everyone on their feet. We welcomed three new Volunteer Leaders and gave out plenty of awards to new volunteers. Everyone also got to trial our LEGO WeDo2.0 kits, working in teams to build a Milo bot.
Sorting time!
Our October school holiday programmes put our LEGO to good use and our Volunteers are helping us get it all sorted for school term time use. It’s a therapeutic thing, sorting LEGO, so our Volunteers enjoy the down time as we enjoy the extra help!
Election Week 2020
One of our wonderful Volunteers bumped into the Prime Minister on her way to Imagination Station!
October School Holidays - 2020
We entered Alert Level 1 again just before the school holidays and boy were we happy to open up our play area again! Our play area, holiday classes, Brick School and Avonhead Mall pop-up sure kept our team busy.
Volunteer Leaders meeting - Thursday 3rd September 2020
We like to gather with our Volunteer Leaders and Experienced Volunteers to see what has been going great and can be improved at our station, also to pose with cars given to us! Thanks to Mediaworks and Toyota for use of the Highlander!
Volunteer Night in Level 2 - Thursday 27th August 2020
Our play area had been closed when Level 2 was announced but with precautions and safety put in place, we were able to get together with our Volunteers for training, food and awards! First the awards for Volunteer Training completion and then our Volunteer Leaders. For our training, we separated into two groups to run two different sessions simultaneously and then switched. One group would complete our website scavenger hunt while the other went through our Birthday party set up.
Volunteers that have finished their training! Our Volunteer Leaders!
University of Canterbury Volunteer Expo - Wednesday 5th August 2020
We were at the University of Canterbury recruiting some students for volunteering. We could not have done it without the help of our volunteers!
Volunteer Build!
Some of our volunteers got together and built a house and garden for their minifigs!
Red Nose Day - Friday 31st July 2020
Some LEGO Red noses our Volunteers built to raise awareness for Red Nose Day in our play area.
Volunteer Celebration Night! - Thursday 25th June 2020.
For Volunteer Celebration week, we wanted to make sure our Volunteers felt celebrated (hence the balloons!). As usual, we gave out certificates to Volunteers who had completed their training but we also got to award 2 of our Volunteers for 5 years of service at Imagination Station. This wonderful team of people never cease to amaze us and we love celebrating them!
Sorting time!
After our LEGO kits have been put to good use our Volunteers like to help us get them sorted again.
Volunteer Welcome Back Night! Thursday 11th June 2020
We missed our first Volunteering Evening of the year due to Covid-19 but when we finally came out of Level 4 lockdown we wanted to welcome our Volunteers back to Level 1 the best way we knew how, with LEGO! We had been socially distant for so long so we thought that it was a good time to cross that bridge, but first, we had to build it! The LEGO challenge for the evening was to build a bridge that could hold the weight of a full 1.5L bottle. It required teamwork, time pressure and eventually we got our winners (spot the team that’s smiling!). It was splendid seeing our volunteers after such a long time.
Birthday Parties!
We run birthday parties and our Volunteers get to be a part of the fun! Whether it’s building LEGO letters to spell our Birthday person’s name, helping run the Challenge Zones or making sure the space is tidy and ready for a party.
Farewell night for Evelyn - August 2019
We said farewell to our previous beloved Volunteer Coordinator Evelyn before her move back to Malaysia. Don’t be fooled by our smiles, our tears made an ocean for all the LEGO sea creatures we built in her honour (she’s a bit of an ocean lover).
Cool characters!
Our volunteers like to build their favourite characters for customers to spot, see if one of your favourites have been built!
The Christchurch Brick Show - July 2019
The annual Christchurch Brick Show was phenomenal! You’ll be able to spot out Imagination Station brick on the back of every Volunteer, Brick Show exhibitor and our flags.
Volunteering Canterbury Recognition Award - June 2019
One of our extraordinary Volunteers, Josh was awarded with the Volunteering Canterbury Recognition Award. Josh is one of our most committed Volunteers and has contributed greatly to our organisation since the very beginning!
Brick School fun!
Every school holidays a few of our wonderful Volunteers lead our Holiday Brick School programme. They run games and challenges, take them through some of our classes and have the most fun with our Brick Schoolers.
Volunteer Night! - March 2019
Running through some icebreakers with the team to start off the evening, Evelyn, our previous Volunteer Coordinator would always find a clever way to make LEGO a part of it!
Catch them all!
These are some of the cool Pokemon LEGO builds our Volunteers have left in our play area for customers to catch
Move to Turanga Library - October 2018
We have made the big move from our Cathedral Junction shop to Turanga Library! We couldn’t be more excited for our shiny and new play area.
Last Volunteer Night in Cathedral Junction! - September 2018
This was our last gathering together as a team in Cathedral Junction before the big move next door to Turanga Library. We had our briefing and gladly said goodbye to our big yellow ‘exit’ button for the door and 50 person limit.
The Christchurch Brick Show - July 2018
Another year with our Pop-up play area at the Christchurch Brick Show makes us pull all the faces. This is our last one with the old Imagination Station Logo!
Volunteering Canterbury Recognition Award - June 2018
The wonderful Sarah was our very first Volunteer to receive the Volunteering Canterbury Recognition Award and we couldn’t have been more proud.
Children’s Day - March 2018
We had great weather out in the Redzone for our Children’s day pop-up.
Volunteer Night - December 2017
It’s a LEGO hat party! You’d be surprised with the durability of LEGO, it keeps the sun and water off your face and you can design it however you like. We got great designs but I wouldn’t be so confident with the hats our team made…
Volunteer Mahi!
Our Volunteers Welcoming customers and helping out with our robotics classes.
The Christchurch Brick Show - July 2017
We thought we’d make the most of the empty play area for a photo op. Brick Show is always a crazy busy weekend with thousands of people coming through!
Volunteer Night - July 2016
The team in the DUPLO pit building a house for one of our Volunteers!
Volunteer Night - 2015
MAKE IT RAIN LEGO!! - When all our LEGO was spread out on the floor for an authentic experience. Our team wasted no time reliving their mother’s nightmares.