Still looking to make a New Year’s resolution for 2008? How about lending some of your time to make your community a better place—one smile at a time.
With a new year underway, the Fort Frances Volunteer Bureau is looking at diversifying its volunteer base to be able to help others in a greater variety of ways, administrative assistant Debbie Bazylewski said last week.
“Right now, our volunteers are limited as to what we can do for people, so we need more volunteers coming in,” she remarked, clarifying the bureau is not low on volunteers, just the variety of jobs for which they’re available.
For example, right now volunteers are needed for snow shovelling, as are occasional drivers to help others get to doctors’ appointments and the grocery store.
The volunteer bureau also will be selling crocuses as part of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind’s annual campaign on Feb. 4-9. As such, it needs volunteers to help take businesses’ bulb orders, unload/load crocus bulbs, and volunteer their time to sell them at various locations.
And with income tax season around the corner, volunteers can take the training to help others fill out their returns.
Bazylewski noted some volunteer jobs vary with the seasons or specific events, whether it’s mowing lawns in the spring and summer or raking leaves in autumn, or helping out with the annual Terry Fox Run, “Operation Pumpkin,” or the very popular community Christmas dinner.
Others are year-round, such as the “Friendly Visitors” program where volunteers spend time visiting Rainycrest residents, for instance.
“We have had a few people asking about ‘friendly visiting,’ and we have filled a few positions. But there’s a need for more people who have that ‘knack’ for socializing,” said Bazylewski.
“A lot of the residents [at Rainycrest] don’t have a lot of family or friends,” she noted. “But nobody should have to be ‘shut-in.’”
Bazylewski said the process of applying to become a volunteer is “very simple.”
The first step is to drop by the volunteer bureau (located in the old CN station) anytime between 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Monday to Friday, or call 274-9555 (leave a message if no one answers).
This will be followed by a brief session, during which Bazylewski will try to match the needs of the volunteer with those of the bureau—and those who look to them for help.
“We want a variety of skills, but you don’t need a social service worker diploma,” Bazylewski stressed. “Volunteers can be anybody as long as their heart’s in it.”
High school students are encouraged to get involved and lend a hand to work off those mandatory volunteer hours needed to graduate.
There’s no age limit on being a volunteer, with the exception of some services, like tax returns, where they need to be at least 18 years of age.
For those who still have questions about being a volunteer, Bazylewski noted the volunteer bureau also has literature and videos they may find helpful in making their decision.
Bazylewski also said the public should keep their eyes peeled in coming months for a combination recruitment drive/tag day the volunteer bureau will be conducting.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
