National Volunteer Week is over and it wrapped up with a hearty celebration and information session.

 A Volunteer Fair took place in the Town & Country Centre where volunteers, potential volunteers and the public could come and celebrate while also learning about how to go about volunteering for different organizations.

David Maffitt with Volunteer Airdrie said that this was their way to wrap up the week.

"This our wrap up to National Volunteer Week 2019. This is our way of saying thank you to all volunteers in Airdrie for what they've done in the community and allow them to network with each other and meet some of the other non-profit groups that are active in our community."

Organizations set up booths to provide information to the public.

"They're showing off their causes, their impact in our community and telling people about the volunteer opportunities that they have. We're hoping that there will be some new relationships formed with prospective volunteers, newcomers to our community that want to connect. We're very fortunate, we've got 15 organizations here for our first annual volunteer fair."

Maffitt said he would like to see a good attendance.

"I'm hoping so. We've been very active on social media (...). We're hoping to get maybe 100 to 200 people this year, but it's our first annual. We're hoping that it's a good start and we'll have an even bigger and better one next year."

Volunteers are important to honour because, without them, Canada would be hard-pressed to find the money to provide the services they provide.

"There are about 13,000,000 volunteers across Canada and they contribute two billion hours per year. If it wasn't for those volunteers and all their hard work, we wouldn't have the society that we have today. There's no way that government has the funding and resources to provide all of the important services, sports organizations and other necessities of life really. If it wasn't for the volunteer sector, we wouldn't have the standard of living that we have in Canada."

 

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