Staff
Along with spring comes Volunteer Appreciation Week, an annual event in Rimbey to honour and acknowledge the many who give of their time and talents to help others.
“They definitely play a major role in many aspects,” said Brenda Soderberg, health care co-ordinator for Rimbey Family Community Support Services (FCSS). “Through FCSS, we have several programs that couldn’t operate without volunteers. For example, it’s tax season and right now we have volunteers preparing returns for seniors and low-income earners, which is a very popular service in the community.”
Soderberg said they have seen an increase in the amount of people volunteering to prepare tax returns including a local firm that donated their worker’s time to help out, but volunteerism goes far beyond tax season and borders on the critical.
“We have volunteers that deliver Meals on Wheels five days a week, holidays included,” she said. “We have several volunteers at the Rimbey Food Bank, including a few that work weekly and others that come in for special work bees and again, if we had to staff those positions, it wouldn’t be possible.”
This year, FCSS will be using the theme Volunteers are Champions to recognize the more than 150 volunteers in the Rimbey area and will host an evening of food and entertainment April 19 at the Rimbey Community Centre.
“For most of the volunteers, that’s probably the only thanks they’ll get all year. Not that the people receiving the services don’t thank them, but there’s no other remuneration other than that,” Soderberg said, adding that with a significant elderly population, Rimbey could always use more volunteers. “Absolutely. In our community with many of the residents seniors and aging, we definitely have more need for volunteers.”
Anyone interested in volunteering with the FCSS is invited to contact Moira Gates at 843-2030.