The Tithe Barn Trust depends on the efforts of many people to help it fulfil its task working to ensure the future of Landbeach tithe barn as a valued community asset that all can enjoy. All volunteers bring something important to the barn whether it is simply helping out at an event or making a longer term, more formal commitment. Below, Luke Ayton our socia media volunteer tells us a little about himself and why he has enjoyed being involved with the Tithe Barn Trust.

Hi, my name’s Luke, I’m 44 and live in my home-town of Cambridge. I have been volunteering with the Tithe Barn Trust (TBT) for around three years now. I help with their communications activities, mainly arranging and posting into their social media accounts and advising on how to make better use of social media as a part of their overall communications activity. Nowadays social media are a crucial means of communication and essential in keeping both current followers and (hopefully) new readers up-to-date with all that is going on, especially events and fundraising campaigns.

I first came across the TBT while looking for volunteer roles during the Covid lockdown to gain some experience of Marketing, as I had just completed my Masters degree in the subject. Following a conversation with the then-Chair, I agreed to come on board. Since then I’ve collaborated with other volunteers to ensure that the Trust gets its messages out in a timely way through multiple channels including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X and also assisting with emails. Marketing communications is my professional area of expertise so this has been a natural fit for me and an easy way to make a useful contribution. It’s not an onerous task; I volunteer from home and mostly can make my contribution as and when it works for me. It gives me another outlet for my talents and it is good to feel that I am helping the TBT to achieve their goals of developing the medieval Landbeach tithe barn into an asset valued by the whole community.

The committee is a friendly bunch to work with who have always been very appreciative of my efforts on their behalf. In addition to feeling a valued part of the team my volunteering has benefited me in other ways too. The Trust has supported me to access useful training opportunities and when I recently changed job, they kindly gave me a reference that played a part in my securing my current role.

Somewhat reluctantly, I am now standing down after three rewarding years as my new role and home life are dictating a change of focus. I’ve greatly enjoyed being involved with what is a very worthwhile enterprise and especially liked dealing with a friendly and committed group of people of all ages. If you are looking for a small-scale local charity to contribute to at whatever level of commitment you wish to make, you could do a lot worse than Landbeach’s Tithe Barn Trust.