Timeraiser and National Volunteer Week

National Volunteer Week is an annual celebration to recognize and celebrate the generous contributions of volunteers and their positive impact in the community.

This year, Volunteer Canada celebrates National Volunteer Week’s 16th year, and we are proud supporters who host Wood Buffalo’s volunteer celebration events.

The national topic for 2019 is The Volunteer Factor-Lifting Communities. Volunteers leading neighbourhood activities-lift the collective confidence to solve common issues. Volunteers tutoring people to read-lift their self-esteem and increase their success in school. Volunteers visiting people-lift their spirits and keep them connected. Volunteers coaching sports teams-lift community pride and create life-long bonds, so that is the power of the ‘Volunteer Factor!’

Volunteering also gives volunteers a lift. When we volunteer, our sense of purpose lifts and our confidence as we gain skills and experience. Volunteering lifts our chances in achieving our goals. The sky’s the limit!

Volunteer Week is one of the largest initiatives within the FuseSocial Volunteer Resource Management unit, which includes a portfolio of promoting, developing and supporting volunteerism in the Wood Buffalo Region.

The goal of this week is to promote volunteerism in the community, and more importantly, to acknowledge and appreciate our volunteers that make a difference in our community.

It boasts existing activities and opportunities to engage local social profit organizations and participate in dialogue around volunteerism.

Our local organized activities include the Timeraiser and Volunteer Managers’ Appreciation Reception. We host these each year in the community.

Timeraiser is an art auction with a twist. What’s the twist? Instead of bidding with money, participants bid volunteer time to agencies that need their skills. We buy all artwork from local artists at fair market value and auction it off on the night of the Timeraiser.

Successful auction bidders have 12 months to complete their volunteer pledge. The piece of artwork is meant to act as a reminder of their goodwill.

This event will raise approximately 3,000 volunteer hours for our community! More than ever, our social profit sector is relying on the volunteers’ help to provide all those programs and services for our local community members, so the Timeraiser is always a great way to generate those volunteer hours.

For all individuals that want to learn more about volunteerism and the volunteer opportunities in Wood Buffalo, they can visit our website WBVolunteers.ca, open a volunteer profile and apply for some of the great volunteer opportunities!

We have a great announcement for our website for 2019! We are building new and improved website that will be matching volunteers to organizations of their interest and track volunteer hours, and also an event calendar that will display all the events and volunteer needs.

As an addition to the website, we’ll have an app that will be available to the volunteer managers that will be using the free services of our website and also for the volunteers-to assist them with having easy access to the details of the volunteer position and tracking their hours.

As part of the 2019 National Volunteer Week celebrations in Wood Buffalo, we will also host a Volunteer Manager’s Appreciation Reception.

Volunteer Managers are the driving force for each organization, and through wearing different hats-from event planning, recruiting and training volunteers to showing appreciation and writing reference letters for volunteers, they greatly contribute towards getting the organizations’ visions to concrete activities that will support the local community.

We want to show them how much we really appreciate all that they do and we invite them along their outstanding volunteers to join us for an afternoon of celebration of their successes and showing appreciation to their volunteers as well!

We want to thank all our sponsors who are supporting this great initiative!

Our Presenting Partners: Suncor Energy and Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, the Budding Artist Presenting Sponsor: Wood Buffalo & District Labour Council, our hosts: Arts Council Wood Buffalo and the Regional Recreation Corporation, our supporters, Your McMurray Magazine and YMM Parent of Balsom Communications, Unifor Local 707-A, Country 93.3 and Rock 97.7 of Rogers Media, Snapd and Volunteer Canada, as well as our core funders: the RMWB, Suncor Energy Foundation and Alberta Culture & Tourism.

Last, but not least, thank you to our amazing volunteers for putting their time, skills and heart into supporting great programs, projects and ideas! Thank you for lifting our community and being the thread that brings everyone together!

Highlights of the successes of Timeraiser, so far include:

• 311 local and emerging artists have been supported financially and professionally and their art is proudly displayed in homes and businesses across Canada.
• 17,000 volunteer hours have been pledged to the social profit sector of Wood Buffalo. This is equivalent to 9.34 full-time employees for one year (@35 hr/week).
• 114 Wood Buffalo social profit organizations have been showcased and have recruited volunteers directly as a result of the relationship building at the event.

Photos by Greg Halinda Photography & Snapd Wood Buffalo