After two long years of the “shut-in” life, it’s great to get back to attending meetings and events in person.
At the end of April, Turner Valley and Black Diamond FCSS hosted a Volunteer Appreciation Event at the Sheep River Library and a Seniors Tea at the Griffith Centre on June 8.
Both events were well attended with high energy and lively conversation.
At the Volunteer Appreciation Event, students from Oilfields High School volunteered to interview the attending volunteers to gather stories of why they volunteer and what keeps them coming back. Turns out many of them started volunteering to meet new people, expand their network, learn something new and/or give something back.
What they discovered they ended up getting from their volunteering experiences is what keeps them coming back. Most said they find the experiences to be very rewarding personally; they get so much more out of it than they expected.
They learn and grow, develop strong people skills, become more aware of what is going on in the world and accept the different perspectives of others. They find it brings them great joy, a sense of belonging and of being valuable to others.
Many thanks to learning commons facilitator of OHS, Cindy Watts, and her students Elara Campbell, Kiana Milne, Mia Fleshman, Amber Goddard, Rachael Welsh and Macy Richardson for conducting these interviews.
At the Seniors Tea, Kaiser’s Cakery, the Westwood and Chocolate by Cotton provided a tantalizing array of baked goods and chocolate-covered strawberries for the event hosted at the Griffith Centre. A big thank you goes out to Tim Hortons for providing coffee and tea for the event and to Pharmasave and Dairy Queen for their generous door prize donations.
