Photo Courtesy EverythingGP Staff

By Tanner Smith

Community

VolunteerGP and the City hosting Volunteer Awards on Monday

Dec 4, 2022 | 12:34 PM

Monday, December 5, marks International Volunteers Day, and to celebrate the Grande Prairie Regional Association of Volunteers Organizations, (VolunteerGP) has partnered with the City of Grande to host the Volunteer Awards.

The doors open at 7 a.m. with the actual event starting at 7:30 at the Golden Age Centre.

Executive Director of the Regional Association of Volunteer Organizations, Carol-Anne Pasemko says ” The actual breakfast is back, it’s open to the public, it’s free and will run just for a couple of hours, and we are recognizing our, Volunteer of the year, Corporate Volunteer of the year, six outstanding citizens and eight leaders of tomorrow.”

Pasemko says that volunteering is very important to any community, but especially for Grande Prairie, with the organization finding volunteers contributed millions of dollars worth of labor to the City and surrounding areas throughout the pandemic.

” When we did the figures it came to almost $41 million worth of free in-kind labor, you can’t afford that, you’re looking at church groups, and you’re looking at school groups, and you’re looking at all the help groups, it actually is just a small drip in the bucket.”

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She adds, to get that figure, the organization uses a base of $21.50 an hour to add up the total cost of all the hours put in by the organization.

This event is held every year in conjunction with International Volunteers Day, which was established by the UN in 1985 to commemorate the contributions and dedication of volunteers across the globe.

Pasemko says, she encourages everybody to volunteer, as it only betters your community and your own mental health, ” Volunteering makes you feel good, volunteering makes you feel part of a collective, where your health benefits, this is not just ‘pie in the sky’ they’ve measured this, they have done the scientific studies, so volunteering helps people get out and cope more.”

For more information regarding this event, or if you want to learn more about VolunteerGP and how to get involved, click here.