Senior Royals set to join public in Coronation bank holiday volunteering

Senior members of the Royal family are expected to join the public and take part in volunteering during the Coronation bank holiday, The Telegraph understands.

The scheme, called The Big Help Out, launches on Friday and charities are urging people to use the bank holiday on May 8 to take part in activities which create a lasting volunteering legacy from the Coronation.

The Prince and Princess of Wales are thought likely to get involved and are said to consider it a “fantastic” idea.

Bear Grylls, the British adventurer and Chief Scout, who is helping to launch The Big Help Out, said that volunteering is “a huge part of what makes this country great” and that he aims to inspire a new generation of people with the event.

The Big Help Out is a scheme devised in tribute to the King’s many decades of public service and is reflective of his desire to create lasting change as well as to inspire others.

As part of the plans revealed on Friday, the public is being asked to spend some hours taking part in one local volunteering event that will be advertised in the spring ahead of the bank holiday.

If there isn’t one happening locally, they are encouraged to start their own event, such as litter picking or having their morning coffee with others from the local community.

The plan is for the various events to inspire people to sign up for future volunteering opportunities in order to create a lasting volunteering legacy from the Coronation weekend.

The Big Help Out was created by well-known British charities, including the Scouts, the Royal Voluntary Service and the National Trust, and it will be supported by the Together Coalition.

Launching the plans for the day of volunteering, Mr Grylls said: “It’s not just in times of crisis that we step up.

“Volunteering - whether formal or informal - is what powers our communities from Scout leaders to football coaches, collecting the shopping for an elderly neighbour to helping out at the school fete.”

He added: “The Big Help Out will put volunteering centre stage for a day and give people who want to volunteer easy ways to join in.

“We are delighted to be a central part of the Coronation weekend, particularly given the King and the Queen Consort’s long history of support for volunteering.”

As well as the community events, it is understood that there will be a set of high-profile regional events with famous faces who plan to join.

The volunteering will be organised and advertised by the charities involved, but others will be community-led.

Brendan Cox, the co-founder of the Together Coalition, said: “How we mark the Coronation will reflect the kind of country we are.

“Along with the pageantry and parties, we hope an opportunity to volunteer will leave a long-lasting legacy in communities right around the country.”

Stuart Andrew, the Minister for Civil Society, added that the Big Help Out will be a “fitting tribute to the King’s life of public service and the Queen Consort’s long-standing support for volunteering”.

The Tory MP said: “It will be a fantastic opportunity for people to get involved in the great work being done by voluntary organisations in their local area.

“It will also give individuals the chance to see the wider benefits volunteering can bring to their own wellbeing and to efforts to tackle loneliness.”

Buckingham Palace has said that the aim of The Big Help Out is “to use volunteering to bring communities together and create a lasting volunteering legacy from the Coronation weekend”.