Caerphilly AM Jeff Cuthbert supporting Sport Wales’ latest appeal for more volunteers to pitch in at their local sports club during Volunteers’ Week, which runs until June 7.
Mr Cuthbert said: “Everyone has a part to play in shaping a culture where sport becomes a habitual way of life. With rising obesity, increasing Type 2 diabetes rates and other diet and exercise related health worries, sport and keeping active is more important now than it ever has been.
“I would urge anyone who might be tempted to help out, be it at their child’s sports club or with a student sport team, to just pitch in and give it a go this Volunteers’ Week. Volunteers are key to the running of sports clubs and events across all our communities.”
To highlight the value of sport volunteers to communities, organisation Sport Wales carried out some research.
It found that an estimated 113,000 adults currently get involved in sports volunteering each dedicating an average of three hours a week to their clubs and sporting events.
The financial value of that commitment is worth more than £160 million a year.
Chair of Sport Wales, Professor Laura McAllister, said: “Volunteers are the lifeblood of many activities in our communities and this is especially true for sport. Last year, through Sport Wales’ Behind Every Star campaign, we sought to raise awareness of coaching and volunteering opportunities in communities up and down Wales.
“We have set a challenging target to engage 10% of the Welsh adult population in volunteering in sport by 2016 and National Volunteers’ Week is a great springboard for us to raise awareness of the opportunities available once again.
“We want to not only see those people actively involved in coaching grow, but make sure people are aware that sport needs people with a whole range of skills, from building websites and helping with administration to driving the team mini-bus and cutting up the half-time oranges.”