Pinboard collage from office, Mattel toy products

I fell into my current job, fundraising at Ronald McDonald House Charities for hospitalised children and their families, after leaving previous careers behind in pursuit of something in the voluntary sector. In my role, It can take up to twenty-four months to secure support and a lot of my best networking is done at 2am at the end of events!

One of my proudest achievements was getting Mattel to agree to send pallets of toys out for children at all fourteen of our houses across the UK at Christmas. The impact of brand new toys at Christmas for families was huge and I’m proud to have helped to enable this!

One thing I’ve been working on recently is a Grab & Go table in each House, so that families can have a snack or drink in their handbag during hospital day trips. A small snack can make a big difference at anxious times!

Festival passes, staff handbooks, team T-shirt

I’ve been volunteering at festivals for twenty-one years! And although ‘technically’ it is work, it is what I choose to do with most of my holidays and weekends. I’ve been doing it for so long that they know that I know what I’m doing! It’s also where I met my boyfriend, who is also a regular volunteer.

My favourite festivals are the smaller ones that aren’t trying to grow but have a really nice vibe. I love that smaller festivals really commit to their principles - like Shamballa in Market Harborough they have had 100% vegetarian food since 2016, which was pretty radical at the time!

We pay a lot of attention to the big festivals like Glastonbury but there’s something really magical about the small ones. Even if you don’t know many of the headliners - the atmosphere is always amazing.

Caroline’s dad’s ‘bargain bin vinyls’

I’m big into music. I was mainly into rock in my teens, mellowed out into pop in my early 20s and now I have a hugely eclectic music taste.

I think it probably started with my dad. He was a bargain bin vinyl hunter - he would go through the box of cheap vinyl in record shops and try to find the best stuff he could in there. My dad took me to my first gig as well - we went to see Wet Wet Wet with my friend, Kim, when I was fifteen.

My dad passed away when I was a teenager but my love of music has continued to grow and expand. Gigs, festivals, bands and albums are still a huge part of my life, even if I do tend to buy my albums online rather than from the bargain bin!

Collection of albums including the Wannadies ‘Big Fan’ CD single, ticket stub, dressing room pictures

My first taste of intensely following a band was with the Wannadies when I was at university. They were playing one night and I was going to see them and I posted on their online forum to tell them to look out for the girl with long blonde hair in a blue sparkly top. They asked if I was Agnetha from Abba based on that description! After the gig, I just went to the stage door and walked through to their dressing rooms to meet them! They released an album called ‘Big Fan’ a few years later and I was named on the inside cover in a list of their top fans.

I’ve got a similar relationship with the Magic Numbers now, and the Feeling. I’ve been following them for so long and I go to so many of their gigs that they know me personally. It’s a two way relationship really - they need fans like me to keep them going and I love their music and meeting them, so they make time for me. I’m very loyal to the bands that I follow, and they’re loyal to me!

Selection of crafts made by niece, nephew and extended nieces and nephews, Snapchat filters

I’m definitely the crazy auntie to my friends’ kids and my boyfriend’s niece, as well as my own niece and nephew. When you don’t have kids yourself, you take advantage of the opportunity kids provide to be silly and I’m always playing around with them.

My niece thinks the Snapchat filters on my phone are hilarious and I always play with her on them, I’m not sure my brother is impressed by it! I’m probably a bad influence.

I hope it’s me who gets to take them to their first gigs. They’re all a bit young yet but my niece has started listening to a lot of First Aid Kit, who I really like as well. So I think I might try to take her next time they’re touring. The first of many crazy auntie gigs…

Food Hub collection box, typical weekly food delivery

I got furloughed from my job during lockdown. After spending the first week enjoying the garden, I found myself with a big gap in my life to fill and so I started applying for volunteering opportunities to find something useful to do with my time.

In June 2020, I set up the Cheylesmore Food Hub, a social supermarket. Some funders initially said that Cheylesmore was ‘too well-off to need a food bank’ but me and three other volunteers disagreed. Since then, we have provided food bags for 541 people as members, as well as emergency food bags for Coventry City Council as part of the Household Support Fund.

In lockdown I’d gone off and accidentally made a new life for myself, but now that we’ve got forty volunteers and a full time member of staff, it’s easier. I still do hands-on deliveries of food on Saturday mornings when I can.

Caroline’s shoes, her mum’s shoes and her nan’s shoes

I reckon my organisational genes pass down from my nan. I remember going to hers for Christmas - she’d have the whole extended family round so it was quite a task! She would always have a huge list of jobs to do and I’d work with her on them to make sure everything was done on time.

Being organised certainly passed on to my mum: she is super busy, even in retirement. She’s chair of her local Horticultural Association - I definitely didn’t get the horticultural skills from her but you can see her drive and organisation in me. I don’t call her often because I’m so busy but she calls me every now and again to check in.

As for me, I’m grateful for my Starling genes when I have to organise a food hub, a fundraising event and a team of music festival volunteers all in one week!

Selection of Zumba instructor clothing

Growing up, I wasn’t allowed to do ballet - I think my parents thought that I wasn’t the right shape for a ballerina, they were looking out for me. But I’ve always loved to dance - from playground dance routines to wedding discos!

It was dance that drew me to Zumba as you get to learn lots of different styles. After a while, I realised I could teach it and got qualified. My favourite classes to teach were Zumba Gold. It’s an accessible form of Zumba that I’d teach to older ladies - they used to request songs and I’d choreograph for them.

Recently, at a work event, Proud Mary came on and I jumped up onto the dancefloor and did the full routine to it! And then sat down after to talk about charity bike rides. I don’t have time for Zumba any more but I’ll take any opportunity to get up and dance!

Selection of language dictionaries, USB stick of language chants

I learnt French and German at school and did them to degree level. It was just what I was good at and I didn’t really have a career plan, so I just kept doing what I was good at. My mum studied languages so maybe it’s her genes that help me pick them up so quickly - when I look at stuff, it just makes sense. While I was studying my A Levels, I took up night classes in Russian and Italian, just for the giggles really. Russian was a beast to learn!

I did translation at university and took up Swedish, to be honest partly because of the bands I liked but also because they’re so similar to Danish and Norwegian that you kind of get three languages for the price of one. Bargain.

I find it incredibly difficult to travel to places without learning the language, I just think it’s polite to learn. I have this USB in my car that kind of chants Italian and Spanish phrases to music - it’s muy embarazosa but it works!

Travel souvenirs

When my grandparents retired in the 90s, they decided to go on a round the world trip. A pretty cool thing to do with your retirement! I remember, years later, visiting my Grandad. He wasn’t very well and had lost his sight so I sat with him and watched the video recordings of their travels that he’d made. That’s where I got my love of travelling from - the videos taught me that seeing faraway countries was just something you did.

I spent a semester at the translation school in Geneva for my degree and, as there was no student accommodation available, I lived in a house run by Italian nuns! It was great - I got to hang out with the most unlikely of friends in the evenings, and I didn’t know anyone in the city before moving there.

Despite studying Swedish at university, I’ve still never been to Sweden! It’s on my list of future big trips…