AVA Magazine: July 22

22 AVA | July 2022
Celebrating|Volunteers’ Week 2022
Emma Christie
AVA Development
Officer, specialising in
Volunteering
“Everyone told me
Volunteers’ Week was
a busy one, and they
were right!”
We started the week with my first forum, this was
a super opportunity to hear from Mearns and
Coastal Healthy Living, Grampian Opportunities
and Paw Palz about what they do and why they do it. It
was great to hear about the volunteering they are doing
and the difference volunteering makes to the people
they support and the volunteers themselves. The Queen’s
Jubilee celebrations gave us a couple of days rest before
ending the week with our star awards, celebrating with
a light lunch at the Fly Cup in Inverurie with 25 people,
nominated by the wider community for their volunteering
and the difference it has made to the local area. Hearing
from people making their areas better by litter picking
and planting, running around during storms to make
sure people had food, water and information and giving
clothes and items a new life in a charity shop was an
inspiring and humbling experience. It is a pleasure to be
here to support all these organisations and individuals to
do what they do.
In the run up to volunteer’s week we printed and sent
more than 100 certificates to volunteers to recogise the
length of time they have been volunteering. Sending
badges celebrating 5, 10 and 15 year awards makes us
very happy. We do these all
year round so no need to
wait for volunteers’ week to
recognise achievements.
During the volunteering
forum one of the attendees
said ‘Volunteering is the
reason many people get out
of bed’ I loved this and am
looking forward to supporting
many more people into
volunteering over the next
year to celebrate their
success in Volunteer week
2023!
Congratualtions to
Charlie House for their
Queen’s Award for
Voluntary Service!