We are extremely grateful for our volunteer’s passion; not just one week of the year but every day!
In 2021 alone, we have already welcomed over 41 volunteers who have played an integral role in building the capacity of our Programs, Communications, Finance, Human Resources, and Development & Fundraising Departments at our offices in Toronto and Ottawa.
April 18th-24th marked National Volunteer Week here in Canada. The theme for this year’s celebration was “the value of one, the power of many.” ANIDA staff had the opportunity to reflect on this theme and think of the impact that willing individuals have made in our organization and appreciate their skills, efforts, and time!
The following are messages from ANIDA staff of the meaningful contributions their volunteers have made over their time with us.
“It was a pleasure working with Monica these past few months. Not only was she hardworking and ensured that tasks were completed in a timely manner, but she was also very engaged and enthusiastic about the work she was doing. Although the format of this year’s ANIDA Day event was challenging to navigate due to COVID, she offered very creative and unique ideas that were instrumental in making our virtual fundraiser successful. She conducted herself in a very professional manner with the ANIDA team, businesses, organizations, and donors altogether, securing several partnerships within the community. She proved to be a very valuable member in our event planning team and I’m so thankful for her commitment to our initiative!”
“When you have a passion for something, you don’t want to stop working on it. You can tell Mohammad is a passionate person and an SEO Professional. He has been sharing his passion and skills with ANIDA for over four months now, always displaying utmost dedication to his work. Mohammad is always inquiring about improving what we are doing and has an outstanding performance upon delivering results on time. He has helped with our web presence, allowing ANIDA to become more widely known in the community. Mohammad has exceeded my expectations as a volunteer, and we sincerely appreciate him for sharing his time and skills with us.”
“I truly appreciate Thomas’s drive to come regularly at the food bank every Thursday. Since being at the food bank, Thomas has shown me that he has great leadership skills and has a great way of training new volunteers. Him having this skill will without a doubt take him higher!”
“Ariana has been a pleasure to work with (virtually) over the past few months. She has just graduated from Human Resources and has been sharing her expertise with ANIDA to recruit volunteers for our food bank program. She has been helping to write job descriptions, connecting with prospective volunteers through phone and email, and been conducting interviews. With the economy being on a roller coaster of opening and closing, volunteer availability and scheduling is proving to be very similar. Ariana has been a joyful voice connecting volunteers with the causes they want to act on, at the times they are available. We couldn’t be more appreciative of Ariana’s passion and dedication to the work!”
“Every week, I look forward to seeing my special team of volunteers. As a quote mentions, ‘nothing liberates our greatness like the desire to help, the desire to serve.’ – Marianne Williamson. My special group of volunteers produce qualities that embody the value of serving others, especially because they are such great people. They are respectful, energetic, compassionate, caring, and understanding. Seeing how selfless and devoted to supporting their peers in the community makes me so honored to work among them.” – ANIDA Employee
We truly could not do this work without our volunteers’ passion and for that we are extremely grateful; not just one week of the year but every day!