You’ve seen a lot of coverage about volunteers in these pages in the last few weeks and rightly so.
In this issue alone we have three separate stories about volunteers and the work they do. We featured two volunteer recognition events, one in Westlock and one in Clyde, and a story about how volunteers got the local golf course up and running just days after several areas were under water.
One thing that most of the volunteers we’ve covered in the last few weeks have in common, besides the actual volunteering of course, is they don’t take well to recognition. They are modest, to say the least. Most would prefer their picture wasn’t in the newspaper. Some are even embarrassed.
So if not for the recognition, what’s in it for them?
The betterment of their community is almost always the answer.
That’s what Ag 500 Volunteer of the Year Bryan Nyal said upon receiving recognition from the Clyde and District Ag Society last Saturday.
“We love to see our community thrive and grow and be strong,” he said. “That’s why we do what we do. We hope our community stays this way so our kids have a community to grow up in.”
As part of National Volunteer Week April 15-21, the Conference Board of Canada released a report called The Value of Volunteering in Canada outlining some of the benefits to individuals, organizations, communities and society when Canadians volunteer their time. Some of the findings include the fact that even if volunteers are unpaid, their contribution adds significantly to economic activity through the value of services provided.
The conference board estimates that volunteers added over two billion hours to Canada’s work effort in 2017 — the contribution is valued at $55.9 billion, which is equivalent to 2.6 per cent of GDP.
According to Statistics Canada, in 2013, 12.7 million Canadians, or about 43 per cent of the population older than 15 volunteered. While younger Canadians did have high volunteer participation rates, those older than 55 contributed a much higher number of hours.
So next time you see your favourite volunteer, and there are a lot of them, thank them for their contribution. They may blush, but the recognition is well deserved.
