National Volunteer Week was last week, but the City of Airdrie is just gearing up to recognize some of it's outstanding volunteers.

The City will hand out its Volunteer of the Year awards at an exclusive gala MC'd by Mayor Peter Brown later this week. Kim Harris, Community Developer with the City, explained what's been going on behind the scenes since the nominations closed in January.

Harris said that once nominations closed, the City compiled the nominees into a report that was presented to the Community Service Advisory Board, who are responsible for picking the recipients of the award.

"We present to them with the packages. We give them the survey tool to score, and everyone scores individually, and we give them a week to do that. And then we have the winners."

Once that's done, the City gets hard at work to prepare for the gala. They have created a video highlighting all 13 of this year's nominees. They also create a program and arrange refreshments and entertainment. The recipients of the awards are not notified beforehand, so it is a surprise who will win.

The City hands out four awards. There's the Leader of Tomorrow, which recognizes a youth leader between the age of 11 and 17. There's the Volunteer Advocate, which goes to a not for profit group in Airdrie that engages citizens through volunteerism. The third is the Ambassador Award, which goes to a business that gives back by supporting other groups in the city. The most prestigious award is the Soul of Airdrie Award. That person needs to have a longer track record of volunteering through many different avenues.

Harris said that among the 13 nominees, a common theme around volunteering emerged.

"A common theme and a common thing that they did say on the video is that they're all not only passionate about volunteering, but they want to encourage other people to step up and volunteer throughout the community."

The gala goes on May 4 at the Bert Church Theatre.

 

Questions, comments or story ideas? Email us at news@discoverairdrie.com