National Volunteer Week has been declared across Canada and it has been proclaimed in Airdrie by the city council in the last council meeting to properly recognize the hard work from volunteers in Airdrie.

David Maffitt, chair of the board of directors of Volunteer Airdrie Society, said that the week started out strong on the weekend.

"We kicked things off on Sunday with our Free Family Movie Event at the Roxy Theatre. We had 300 people in attendance and watching (movies) as our way of thanking volunteers in the community. A number of guest speakers including Peter Brown, Angela Pitt and Victoria Hendricks from Volunteer Alberta (presented) and it was a great success."

Maffitt also said the week would end on a strong note as well.

"To wrap things up on Saturday, we are having this new event. It's a volunteer fair at the Town & Country Community Hall along with the volunteer appreciation team. We're hoping to see a number of volunteers and volunteer groups out there just networking and learning about each other while helping people connect with non-profit causes that maybe they'd like to volunteer with in the future."

"Just appreciating the efforts of some our volunteers with a very informal tea that will be from about 11 in the morning to four in the afternoon."

Maffit described volunteerism as important to our society.

"I think we need to really recognize the importance of volunteerism in our culture and in our country. Without volunteers, we would be hard pressed to provide a lot of the social safety nets and support systems that we've got and a lot of us benefit from. We need to thank those people."

As a whole, Maffit said that volunteers don't do it for the thanks they are receiving this week.

"A lot of them don't want a huge amount of thanks, but giving them an opportunity to come out and enjoy some of the festivities is just one way of doing that."

Anyone looking to volunteer can find an easier way to go about doing so through Volunteer Airdrie Society.

"There are nearly 225 non-profit organizations registered as being groups out of Airdrie. We try and act as a hub. We have our database on our website where people can go and click on 'volunteer now' and look for opportunities by registering on our app which is called Better Impact, My Impact Page. We have over 130 opportunities listed on that page right now. Various non-profit groups that are partnering with us to advertise their opportunities that are coming up. Right now we have over 410 volunteers that have registered."

 

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