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WHAT IS A VOLUNTEER?
In my years of volunteering, I've noticed that we are needed everywhere. There is realy no guide line to volunteering. You have to give with your heart and enjoy it! I would like to share some volunteering thoughts with you:

Volunteer Appreciation

Need lots of ideas for organizing a Volunteer Appreciation Brunch,
ie. gifts, nifty invitations, speakers, decorations, entertainment, etc.
Any and all suggestions will be much appreciated.



The time you have spent as a volunteer,
Be it half a lifetime or just a year.
Will have it's effect on such far reaching ways,
It can never be measured in hours or days.
But we want to say thank you for doing your part,
For giving your hand and giving your heart.
Thanks for the smiles when you wanted to weep,
For the camping trips when you couldn't sleep.
For car pools and nosebags and sit upons,
For lighting the way to the outdoor johns.
For running and phoning and meeting and waiting,
For hiking and swimming and rolllerskating.
But thanks more than ever for years yet to come,
When someone remembers the job that you've done.
And memories brighten a young womens face,
In some other time and some other place.



You Need to Know
by Sharon Hawkins

Sometimes they get to know you,
the patience in your voice,
the world they have stumbled over
twenty times
read softly in their ear.

They see the pleasure in your eyes
over a ball caught,
or the bright red slash of paint
that you know
right away
is a barn.

Sometimes they will put a small hand in yours
and stand bravely
before the cow
they have never touched.

And sometimes you have just the right book
to help a worried patient
understand their child.
Sometimes, even for a moment,
the world is an easier place
because you are right there.

But mostly you are unseen,
a presence,
watching
from a distance

When a child kneels before a doll house,
the toy family
that lets him tell a story
fore which there are no words,

Or when he makes it to the top
of the play structure
and the squeals of delight,

You are there
in the sand
to catch him
in a soft landing
at the end of the slide.

Your faces are a paint reflection
. in the computer screen
where he plays a game
and discovers the way
to solve a problem.

You are there in a corner of the waiting room
when his parent breathes a sigh of relief
that there are toys
to ease an anxious time

You are cupcakes at Christmas,
candy at Halloween,
eggs at Easter.

You are the unseen cheering section
at the soccer game,
fresh air
in the face of the young man
who has just
survived
his first run on skis.

You sit beside the drivers,
the children in the back seat
talking of summer,
the day camp they go to
like everyone else.

You need to know
that you are part of these young lives
everyday,
and you need to know
you make a difference.

Sharon Hawkins is Service Coordinator of the Children’s Day Treatment Program at the Royal Ottawa Hospital. She wrote the poem specfically for the AGM as a different, more meaningful way to thank the volunteers for all their support. "We greatly appreciate everything that volunteers do for children’s programs here at the ROH", said Sharon. "We get many things from the volunteers that we otherwise wouldn’t dream of." Sharon has been studying poetry for six years and two of her poems have been published in literary magazines and is associate editor of "Arc" magazine.



Value
By Lorraine Jensen
To say I volunteer for lack of something
better to do
Is to say my time has no value.
To say I volunteer therefore I work for you
for nothing
But to say I choose to give my time to your
Is to say we both have value.



I'll be posting more as ideas "pop" up! Please share any of your ideas!


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