Peter Shokeir | [email protected]
Local volunteers are being celebrated and recognized on a new Facebook page, “Jasper Volunteers,” which recently launched in time for National Volunteer Week.
Running from April 18 to April 24 this year, National Volunteer Week celebrates and thanks Canada’s 12.7 million volunteers.
“We definitely decided to take this to social media and help celebrate in that matter,” said Ginette Marcoux, one of the organizers behind the Facebook page.
“Throughout the week on that page, we’re inviting organizations to recognize their volunteers.”
Organizations can post photographs of volunteers in action, stories about their contributions and video recordings with messages of thanks.
Mayor Richard Ireland proclaimed this week as National Volunteer Week, while Jasper Municipal Council has done a thank-you video for local volunteers.
Among other contributions, volunteers in Jasper work to mentor children, feed the hungry, comfort the lonely, beautify green spaces and fundraise for charitable organizations.
Organizations that rely on volunteers include the Jasper Yellowhead Museum, Seton - Jasper Healthcare Centre, Friends of Jasper National Park, the Jasper Food Bank, the Jasper Municipal Library as well as the Jasper Employment and Education Centre.
In previous years, National Volunteer Week was celebrated through an annual banquet, spearheaded by the Municipality of Jasper.
The banquet did not occur last year due to COVID-19.
“This year, we wanted to do something but recognized that we still can’t do anything in person so this will be a big shift,” Marcoux said.
Marcoux noted how the pandemic has only emphasized the need for volunteering, which has often manifested as random acts of kindness over the past year.
These volunteers often aren’t with an established organization but are individuals who have stepped forward and wanted to help others during these trying times.
“They just did them from the goodness of their heart and they weren’t attached to an organization either,” Marcoux said.
“It was just people really wanting to step up and help the community in whatever ways they could.”
Christian Roy, for example, made over 1,200 masks for locals at the start of the pandemic.
Donnelly Hart and the women’s hospital auxiliary made masks as well.
Other acts of kindness include volunteers delivering food for the Jasper Food Bank and a man working by himself to clean up trails last summer.
Marcoux also highlighted the Community Ninja program, a newly-formed program through Community and Family Services, where volunteers assist with snow shovelling and more.
“We saw some wonderful volunteer efforts in this past year so we’re really hoping that we see some of those stories come out,” she said.
Not only will the Facebook page act as a space to celebrate volunteers, but once this week of recognition comes to a close, the page will remain active in order to promote recruitment and profile agencies.
“Any organization that uses volunteers will have the option of becoming an editor so they can do their own posting,” Marcoux said.
“It will be the page for all things volunteer in Jasper for the future going forward.”
Those wishing to share stories about volunteers in Jasper can visit the Facebook page.
