Parkrun’s friendliest face

And without fail, every weekend, you’re guaranteed to find at least one familiar face cheering you on.

Georgie Waser is the friendly face you see on the sidelines, cheering you on as you race around the lake.

As soon as she was eligible, the 20-year-old from Bunbartha headed down to the lake every weekend to spend her Saturday mornings volunteering for Parkrun.

Over her time as a volunteer, she has attended over 150 parkruns, though she isn’t sure of her total amount to this day.

“It’s hard to pinpoint when I started volunteering officially because I unofficially volunteered for a while before Chelsea, who directs Parkrun itself, suggested that I sign up,” she said.

There, she’s everybody’s personal cheerleader, cheering on the crowds as they race towards the finish line.

“I’m part of the unofficial cheer squad, as we call ourselves,” Georgie said.

“There’s I, who will stand on the sidelines, and I will cheer, and you’ll hear me from where the barbecue area is to the other side of the lake.

“I love watching people get amped up, and they seem to enjoy being yelled at, so I just continue doing it.”

Her actual role, though, is barcode scanning, which involves scanning people’s personal barcodes once the race has finished along with their place token, which then gets linked together so runners can see their results, averages and totals.

To Georgie, the best part about Parkrun is the community she’s found within the runs.

“I get told off when I don’t show up,” she laughed.

“Before doing Parkrun, I could walk down the street and sort of go ‘Oh yeah, that’s just a person from school or whatever’, but you’d run into them like every second time.

“Now, I’ll go down the street and run into so many people from Parkrun.

“They’ll say, ‘Oh my god, I hope you’re coming again this weekend’, and I’m like ‘I’m always there; you can’t get rid of me’.

“I just love that they always thank you for volunteering.”

Her favourite moment of her time at Parkrun was celebrating her 18th birthday by volunteering.

“I loved having my 18th birthday when we had an event on, so they all sang me happy birthday, and then we went out to breakfast afterwards,” Georgie said.

“It was amazing having almost 200 people sing happy birthday to me and thank me for volunteering.”

As Shepparton Parkrun enters its 10th year and nationally Parkrun hits one million participants, now’s the perfect time to get involved.

“Everyone should definitely try Parkrun at least once in their life, even if it’s not to do it itself but to volunteer; we’re always looking for volunteers,” Georgie said.

To join Georgie and volunteer for Shepparton Parkrun, you can head to https://www.parkrun.com.au/shepparton/volunteer/ or email Chelsea at shepparton@parkrun.com