Latest News | November 2021

There are over 4000 organizations on VolunteerConnector so every day there are new opportunities posted to inspire and engage people in their communities. There is a shoe for every foot- you can be remote, in person, one time or frequent, options galore for causes! Thanks to all these organizations for creating innovative ways for people to engage. Here are a couple interesting ones that have caught our eye over the past couple weeks: 

This one from John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights - reasearch ... Love that it is open to anyone across Canada and that volunteers will learn/utilize qualitative and quantitative research skills! 

This one at the Alex - hairdresser ... Love that it’s an opportunity for someone to share their skill set to lift people’s self esteem. 

This one at the Brockville Public Library - library friend ... Love that you can feel the energy from the “why volunteer” section- super fun group of people indeed! 

The awesome people in Lloydminster, Alberta/Saskatchewan are promoting volunteerism in their community in a cool way! Check out these eye-catching street side motivators that encourage people to get connected in their community. Volunteers are essential to creating thriving communities and we love working with innovative communities like Lloydminster to engage their citizens in meaningful community work! 

I have been volunteering for 38 years.  Yes, that’s sad to say, but I’ve been volunteering since I was 4. My Dad was a captain in the Salvation Army, so I grew up volunteering. When I was 4 I would help people with many different mental illnesses and disabilities put bath beads into containers at the warehouse my Dad ran. That was it. I was hooked! I loved that there was an adult that not only loved giving me attention, but also would listen to me and take my advice! I was bossy from an early age, so I was in heaven.  It was so fun explaining how to carefully put those bath beads into place! 

At 5 I would volunteer at the Children’s Village, helping the foster children. My life was always centred around service. My parents tried to teach me that it is better to give than to receive. A lesson that I can easily lose sight of.

As a teenager I would volunteer for the 30 Hour Famine. Which I was never able to complete without caving and eating a chocolate bar or soup.

Then as an adult my first volunteer position was in the classroom. Once again I was thrilled!  Now I was able to not only give instructions, but also be worshiped as an all knowing educator. This made me laugh almost as hard as those eager little grade 3’s did.  It seemed like half of the  boys proposed to me. Sadly, I had to break their sweet little hearts. I especially loved how they would sweeten the pot by promising me that I could either date their fathers or wait until they grew up to be rich hockey players.  

I continued to volunteer in elementary classrooms until this day.  It even inspired me to get my own teaching degree. Although teaching was not the career for me, I still have a huge sense of accomplishment every time I look at that degree.  

I find the value of volunteering is the appreciation and the sense of having achieved something. Don’t we all want to leave this world better than we found it? Volunteering gives us the opportunity to help do that by aiding people in our community. I find that I get a high from random acts of kindness. It makes me feel better about myself and helps me feel like a better person. It can also help me escape the tunnel of self involvement or despair that I can easily fall into without realizing it. This year has been especially tough for all of us.  Volunteering has helped me to remember that it could be much, much worse. It helps remind me to count my blessings, not my troubles.

Thank you,

Kari PB

Welcome to the segment we like to call 'cool volunteerism that made national news' (open to alternative suggestions). Here are three stories about humans taking action to fill a need in their community in different ways. We all possess the capacity to change our communities and there are tons of options with how to go about it. You can donate your skill set to an organization that already exists, you can join with other like minded people to form an organization or you can be a human who does the organizing and partner with additional people!

A woman in Kenora, Ontario who stepped up where the provincial government did not to make sure ALL students in Ontario had access to menstrual products. (CBC News Article)

A group made up of art, culture and heritage professionals created the British Columbia Heritage Response Network support cultural institutions in planning for disaster response and collections salvage. They showed up in a big way in Lytton, British Columbia. (Globe & Mail News Article)

A young person in Calgary using her amazing skills in knitting to make sure 105 people in the city have warmer heads this winter. (CBC News Article)

So thank you Tania Cameron, Allysa Narang and the team at British Columbia Heritage Response Network for the good you are doing in your community! 

The Volunteer Centre of St. Lawrence-Rideau has been serving Leeds & Grenville by providing leadership and community capacity for 40 years. Over the past 20 months, under the leadership of the very cool Mary Lynn Villeneuve they have mobilized even more of their community to support each other in meeting vital needs. Their financial literacy and employment program is renowned across the province. 

We are very excited that the Volunteer Centre of St. Lawrence-Rideau has come on board the VolunteerConnector, our first regional partner in Ontario!! We can't wait to visit and cruise the 1000 Islands and learn more about all the great things that are happening in the communities within Leeds & Grenville.