Nominate your choice for Volunteer Markham's local, community and global spirit awards

'We want to recognize and share the impact volunteering has made over the past few months and continues every day'

Yorkregion.com
Dec. 16
Heidi Riedner

Ordinary people doing extraordinary things have been at the forefront of community responses during the ongoing pandemic and Volunteer Markham wants to recognize their efforts.

In honour of the recent Volunteer Day, Volunteer Markham launched its recognition program called Volunteer Champions.

“We want to recognize and share the impact volunteering has made over the past few months and continues every day," says Mirja Raita, the executive director of Volunteer Markham, which aims to help build a stronger, more thoughtful community through innovative programs that inspire, inform and connect volunteers with the organizations that need them.

Based in the Markham Civic Centre, the group is committed to growing volunteering in Markham by inspiring citizens and connecting the community.

Raita says while this has been a tough time for many people and organizations, the local community has responded and reached out to donate their time, talents and resources.

And that makes a huge difference -- with impacts felt both locally and globally.

The COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan by the World Health Organization (WHO) identified community volunteers as "key stakeholders for risk communication and community engagement," noting the valuable and great effort the WHO believes volunteers are doing during the pandemic, said Raita.

Raita echoed the sentiments of UN Deputy Secretary General Amina J. Mohammed, who said the efforts of 1 billion volunteers "is an important foundation at a pivotal moment for development to enable us to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic" during opening remarks at the GTM2020 in July.

While recognition is not enough, especially when it comes to volunteers' own well-being and access to health care, it does celebrate and honour the work that is being done, says Sharon Taylor, who heads the Volunteer Champions Recognition program.

“We are so proud of the work that our volunteers do for this city,” Taylor says. “We simply want to take the time to recognize their incredible efforts and, by sharing their stories, celebrate their great work.”

All you need to do is fill in a nomination form on the group’s website before Jan. 7, 2021.

The top three categories are local, community and global spirit awards.

Winners will be announced shortly thereafter.