By Phelps Helps
This is National Volunteer Appreciation week and the theme this year is how volunteering weaves us together. At Phelps Helps certainly, our volunteers are an inherent piece of the fabric of the lives of the youth who attend our programs. Every year, the collective effort of our staff and volunteers helps our participants to better their grades, graduate, and find gainful employment. It is also thanks to our volunteers’ involvement that Phelps Helps has held a variety of events for the youth and families in our community throughout the year. Our volunteers make Phelps Helps stronger in everything we do.
National Volunteer Appreciation week is said to have originated in 1943 in honour of the women who volunteered for the national war effort. It experienced a revival in the 1960s and 70s and now, eighty years later, its goal is to support and celebrate the millions of volunteers across Canada whose contribution create interconnected and vibrant communities. From the volunteers who deliver meals to the elderly, to those who work building homes overseas, to those who work to support the youth in our communities, as with Phelps Helps.
The volunteers here at Phelps Helps are a versatile and skilled set of individuals who come from all walks of life. Among the many different expertises and backgrounds are artists, teachers, engineers, professionals of all kinds, students from Bishops University and Stanstead College, and Phelps Helps alumni.
