Planting the Seed

Every European Capital of Culture has a Volunteer programme. But how did ours start? Here is a testimony of our first volunteer – Angelina Titeryakova, who has been an active volunteer for Plovdiv 2019 ever since.

‘It all happened back in 2012 when I was helping out at the Tourist Information Centre (TIC) with delivering some papers to the headquarters of the brand new foundation of Plovdiv 2019. I went to their office, which back then was situated in the Old Town of Plovdiv. While I was there, they mentioned

One of Ani’s (on the left) first memories as a volunteer for the foundation was on the 12th of August 2013, when she gathered around her a team of volunteers who won the cup of the International Youth Day contest. Source: gustonews.bg

that they needed somebody to deliver documents to the Municipality, so I volunteered. And this is how it started. I was helping out occasionally in their office when I had the time. In 2013, when they created the programme, I was officially invited for an interview. Asking me the question ‘Why do you want to volunteer for us?” was scandalous, keeping in mind that for a long time I had been the only volunteer there.”

Slowly but steadily, the Plovdiv 2019 Foundation was becoming popular and more people wanted to join the cause. With the increasing amount of activities and people who wanted to volunteer, naturally there was a need for people to manage the process. Currently, there are 2 volunteer coordinators who run the overall communication with the volunteers.