is a time to recognize and thank volunteers who lend their time, talent, voice and support to causes they care about in their community and around the world. If you work with volunteers or know of a group of deserving volunteers, consider hosting a National Volunteer Week event in their honor. Here are a few tips:
National Volunteer Week takes place April 23-29, 2017, in both the United States and Canada, so consider hosting your event during that week. When picking a date and time, consider your volunteers’ schedules. Can they attend an event in the middle of the day, or is the evening better? If you are unsure, contact a few and take a quick poll.
This is a must-have for any celebration because it helps tie everything together. Remember to incorporate all ages and genders to make it an inclusive event for anybody who might attend. For this year’s National Volunteer Week, Points of Light is advancing the theme of “Service Unites” – centering on the ideas that volunteerism brings people together to tackle tough challenges, create change, and build stronger, more vibrant communities.
Saying thank you doesn’t have to cost a lot, but it’s important to determine how much you want to spend on your event. Brainstorm your biggest expense (ex: location, food). Consider whether you will need technology, like a microphone or sound system, or if you’ll want to hire a photographer or videographer. If you have a limited budget, prioritize based on what you think will make the biggest impact. You may also be able to find a venue that will let you use the space for free, or local restaurants willing to donate food.
Once you’ve set your budget, set your guest list. Get your team together to brainstorm which volunteers you’d like to recognize. Consider also inviting any supporters, external partners or community members who have benefited from your volunteers’ efforts.
People need to know about the event! There are several ways to do this: social media is a great tool, along with email and word of mouth. Check out the National Volunteer Week marketing toolkit for logos, banner templates, sample messages and social media graphics.
Every celebration is centered on a main event, but may include smaller ones throughout the day or evening. For example, you could create an #ivolunteer photo booth to encourage attendees to share what service means to them. Points of Light will be providing a downloadable #ivolunteer signboard for National Volunteer Week (available 4/13 in the
); your attendees can fill out the signboards and take photos to share on social media using #ivolunteer and #NVW. This is an easy (and free) way to engage people during your event.
If you want to show your appreciation with more than just words, consider giving your volunteers small gifts – something simple and meaningful to remind them that they matter to your organization. Here are a few quick ideas from
During or after the celebration, consider sharing pictures or video featuring your volunteers. This is a great way to publically thank them and raise the profile of their work. You can tap into the national conversation around National Volunteer Week using #nvw, #ivolunteer and #serviceunites.
Honor the Volunteers Supporting Your Organization with a President’s Volunteer Service Award
Photo Credit: Corporation for National and Community Service Senior Corps Foster Grandparent Virginia McLaurin volunteers at a school in Washington, D.C. She was awarded the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her nearly two decades of service.
With spring quickly approaching, so is the season for giving back to volunteers who dedicate their time to serving others.
kicks off on April 23 – an opportunity to recognize and thank volunteers who lend their time, talent, voice and support to causes they care about in their community and around the world. What better way to acknowledge a volunteer than by giving them the opportunity to have presidential recognition?
The President’s Volunteer Service Award recognizes the importance of volunteers to America’s strength and national identity, and honors the positive impact of their service on communities across the country.
The PVSA is awarded based on the number of hours volunteers have served during a 12-month period, or over the course of a lifetime. The awards are offered in various levels to recognize different milestones of service achievement. Levels include bronze, silver, gold, and the highest honor, the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award, for those who have contributed more than 4,000 hours of service in their lifetime.
High school students Crystal-Bianca Cabanas and Diego Alcaraz received the silver and bronze PVSA in recognition of their combined 349 hours of service to DogE911 Junior Vet Program. Crystal-Bianca and Diego helped educate other students and pet owners about animal care and disaster preparedness.
Building on her experiences as a Girl Scout, Trina Wiesel makes volunteer work a priority. Now a college senior majoring in elementary education, she was honored with a bronze PVSA for her service as a Girl Scout guide – as well as volunteering as a college algebra tutor, teaching education classes for international students, and more.
Virginia McLaurin, also known as the internet sensation, “Dancing Grandma” recently received the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of nearly two decades of service. Virginia became a Senior Corps Foster Grandparent in her 80s; now 108 years old, she continues to serve, helping students with their reading and social skills, and mentoring children with special needs.
Each honoree receives an award package, which can be customized to include the official PVSA pin, coin, or medallion, a personalized certificate of achievement and a congratulatory letter signed by the President of the United States.
Established in 2003, PVSA is an initiative of the
, and is administered by Points of Light. Awards are issued by Certifying Organizations and Leadership Organizations, which help uphold the program’s integrity, and assist in identifying and recognizing Americans making a difference through volunteer service.
Order by April 5, 2017, to receive President’s Volunteer Service Awards for your volunteers in time for National Volunteer Week!
National Volunteer Week Celebrates Individual Changemakers and the History of Service
This post is by Tracy Hoover, Points of Light’s CEO.
Norman Hurns mentors elementary school boys on “life skills and character education” through Brothers Making a Difference, a program he created after he saw a need to inspire and motivate kids growing up in a city hit hard by changing economics and the shrinking auto industry – Detroit.
Kathy Koenigsdorf works tirelessly to raise money for people battling substance abuse and want help but can’t afford it. Through the foundation she started to honor her late son in 2013, she’s raised $156,000 and funded 172 people into facilities to start on the road to recovery.
And across the pond,
volunteers to teach karate for free or at low cost to kids in Basildon, in Essex County England, who otherwise couldn’t afford it.
Each of these changemakers has been recognized by Points of Light with a
– with Marc’s recognition coming because UK Prime Minister David Cameron has adopted a daily award to celebrate the impact of volunteers in his country.
It’s National Volunteer Week, and you may have already seen these individuals in the news. So many of you have stories about neighbors and friends making a difference through volunteer service. We’d love to learn more about these community changemakers through our
page, you’ll notice that many of the posts are from terrific volunteer organizations in Canada as well as the United States. National Volunteer Week first began in
in 1943, when Women’s Voluntary Services organized special events to draw attention to the important contributions women made on the home front during World War II. Over the years, the idea grew to include all communities and all volunteers. National Volunteer Week is now celebrated in both nations on the same week every year.
A bit of American history: President Nixon first proclaimed National Volunteer Week in 1974. President George H.W. Bush started the Points of Light movement, and National Volunteer Week became part of our mission. “From now on in America,” he often said, “any definition of a successful life must include service to others.” I’d say that’s the case now — anyone who is considered a success in America is almost always also volunteering either their time or their money to help others.
After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, President George W. Bush began the President’s Volunteer Service Award. These awards are given to Americans who have completed a required number of volunteer hours over a one-year period, or cumulative hours over the course of their lifetime. There are bronze, silver and gold awards for young kids, teens, young adults, adults and families, and all with different levels of service hours completed. Since the program’s inception in 2003, more than 1.5 million volunteers have been recognized.
Presidential attention to volunteerism can make a huge difference. Whether it was President Kennedy’s founding of the Peace Corps in 1961, or President Clinton’s creation of AmeriCorps in 1993, or President Bush’s President’s Volunteer Service Awards, the continued focus on recognizing and expanding volunteerism has resulted in a growing number of people mobilizing to take action and change the world. In his recent 2016
, President Barack Obama said, “During National Volunteer Week, let us shed the cynicism that says one person cannot make a difference in the lives of others by embracing each of our individual responsibilities to serve and shape a brighter future for all.”
Our organization now operates in 30 countries, working with volunteers on more than 250,000 service projects, giving more than 30 million hours of service annually for a total of over $635 million worth of donated volunteer time.
National Volunteer Week gives us great momentum for the recognition we do every day. Who do you know who is contributing to this changemaking effort? I encourage you to
them for a Daily Point of Light Award. And share your story with us on what service means to you – why you volunteer – using #NVW2016. Help us continue to build on the history and tell a story of volunteerism and service to others.
2013, Oct. 26, millions of you spread out across your communities to help your neighbors by cleaning parks, feeding the hungry and much more.
Jessica Carscadden gets a hug for the work she does collecting donated stuffed animals for police and fire departments to give scared kids on emergency calls.
, will host a celebration for the winners in Washington, D.C., joined by singer Jon Bon Jovi, “Today” show hosts Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie, and other notable figures.
Below, read about the honorees (and click
for ideas on creating your own Make A Difference Day project for 2014):
Bailey Snow, 16, of Granite Bay, Calif., with eight volunteers, packaged 60 to 70 cans of donated Legos for distribution to local police departments, domestic violence organizations and Boys & Girls Clubs.
High school student Elijah Rodriguez of Leonardo, N.J., arranged a charity walk that raised $7,000 for families still homeless a year after Hurricane Sandy.
Students from Escambia Charter School in Cantonment, Fla., with help from parents and teachers, delivered 300 pounds of canned goods and snacks to a food pantry and the USO in nearby Pensacola, as well as 60 boxes of clothes for three shelters.
Jessica Carscadden, 11, of San Diego rallied about 60 volunteers and oversaw donations of roughly 3,000 stuffed bears for police and firefighters to give to injured or frightened children on emergency calls.
Fourteen-year-old Jessica Collins of Shelbyville, Ky., coordinated 85 volunteers who made blankets, quilts and pillowcases; donated $2,000 for supplies; and delivered 27 beds to kids in need.
Nick Katsoris of Eastchester, N.Y., used his “Loukoumi” children’s book series to motivate more than 20,000 kids to take on projects, from making rainbow loom bracelets for patients at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to collecting canned goods for homeless shelters.
Operation Access, a nonprofit in Sonoma County, Calif., joined with a group of ophthalmologists to save the eyesight of area agricultural workers and day laborers.
Volunteers from Playworks – an organization that provides kids with opportunities for safe, meaningful play – refurbished picnic tables, worked on landscaping and more for a center that serves kids with disabilities as well as seniors and people with special needs.
The students and staff of the University of Akron in Ohio tackled 60 community projects, from helping public housing residents clean their apartments to weatherproofing a home for veterans.
In the City of Cleveland, Tenn., 800 volunteers worked on dozens of activities ranging from a YMCA job fair that helped 64 people find employment to an effort in which nearly 75 Lee University students assembled backpacks for 10,000 children filled with snacks, toothpaste, shampoo and other basics.
The Volunteer Action Center at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark., rallied 1,326 volunteers for projects that ranged from cleaning and stocking the campus food pantry to creating puppets for a local literacy program.
In Weirton, W.Va., the Interact Clubs of Weirton Madonna and Weir high schools helped collect 5,000 pounds of food for local pantries; donate more than 300 pairs of kids’ socks, backpacks and other clothing to Weirton Heights Elementary School; and helped a family whose house exploded in a natural-gas accident, killing their teenage daughter.
The volunteers of the Assistance Leagueled 93 communities nationwide in donating 103,036 books to schools, foster programs and shelters.
A `Priceless’ Reaction to a Bunch of Books
In honor of National Volunteer Week, April 6-12, USA Weekend and Points of Light are recongizing the 2013 Make A Difference Day honorees, who will be celebrated in Washington, D.C., on April 10. Here we tell the story about volunteers across the country making sure kids have books to read.
An Assistance League volunteer from San Mateo County, Calif., bonds with a child over a donated book.
After rounding up an amazing 113,000 books for at-risk children on their first Make A Difference Day in 2012, the women of the Assistance League surprised themselves by nearly copying that success last October: 2,666 members led 93 of the national service organization’s 120 communities in donating 103,036 books to foster programs, schools, shelters, libraries and Boys & Girls Clubs.
“For many of these kids, it may be the only book they own or the only birthday gift they get,” says Kathy Youngman, chairman of the Assistance League’s Make A Difference Day book drive. “So this really is a national event with local impact.”
The San Antonio, Texas, chapter alone gave 14,400 books; Albuquerque, N.M., 5,500. In suburban Detroit, “a retired teacher who’d been collecting books her students had loved decided Make A Difference Day was the perfect time to donate all 868,” says Youngman.
The reaction of book-hungry children was “priceless,” says Southern Utah chapter president Jillene Lander. When her chapter delivered 53 titles to a third-grade classroom at La Verkin Elementary School, where more than half of students live below the poverty line, “kids immediately paired off and started reading to each other. One boy grabbed `Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ and said, ‘I’ve been waiting my whole life to read this!’ He just lit up.”
Look for the 2014 book drive to beat 2012’s numbers: “Since we won the Make A Difference Day Award last year, chapters have been getting more attention and donors in their communities,” says Youngman. “I’m sure we’ll be close to 100 percent of our chapters participating next time.”
In honor of National Volunteer Week, April 6-12, USA Weekend and Points of Light are recongizing the 2013 Make A Difference Day honorees, who will be celebrated in Washington, D.C., on April 10. Here we tell the story of two West Virginia high school clubs looking out for families who don’t have the clothes and food they need.
High school students in Weirton, W.Va., sort cans of donated food on Make A Difference Day.
In Weirton, W.Va., where the steel mill used to employ 14,000 but now has only about 1,000 workers, kids go to school in the cold with no socks. They wear clothes that haven’t been washed in weeks to save utility costs. The only meal they eat all day is the free lunch at school.
It isn’t just a few households down on their luck, either. It is whole neighborhoods: At the largest elementary school, Weirton Heights, almost half of the students live at or below the poverty line.
At the city’s two food pantries, the
, the shelves were bare a few short weeks before Thanksgiving last year, while a record 300 families were signed up for holiday baskets.
“At the Salvation Army, they had maybe two stacks of green beans. That was it,” says Alisandra Welch, the high school senior who was one of the chief organizers of Weirton’s first Make A Difference Day campaign, called Soup, Socks and Smiles: Warm Your Heart, Warm Your Sole.
About 500 volunteers helped in the effort, which included collecting 5,000 pounds of food for the pantries; donating more than 300 pairs of kids’ socks, backpacks and other clothing to
; and helping a family whose house exploded in a natural-gas accident, killing their teenage daughter.
The project began as the effort of Interact Club members at the city’s rival high schools,
. But it caught on community-wide, Welch says, after people learned the depths of hardship many families faced.
“We tied shopping bags to doors in every neighborhood and thought, ‘Maybe some people will put in a can or two,’” Welch says. “Well, we would go to porches and find bags and bags of food.”
Renee Howard, Weir High’s Interact Club adviser, says the project has given the community hope again, after the long years of sadness following the collapse of the former Weirton Steel Corp.
“This is an ongoing thing,” Howard says. “Since that day, Make A Difference Day, we decided we were going to do as much as we can for the community, so we’ve done several different projects.”
Check out the other Make A Difference Day honorees at www.makeadifferenceday.com/winners.
No College Course Can Teach This
In honor of National Volunteer Week, April 6-12, USA Weekend and Points of Light are recongizing the 2013 Make A Difference Day honorees, who will be celebrated in Washington, D.C., on April 10. Here we tell the story of Arkansas college students uniting as volunteers for the community.
University of Arkansas Students help clean up on Make A Difference Day.
with an industrial engineering degree and a commitment to volunteer service.
Hilliard, 21, is the president of her school’s Volunteer Action Center, which works with more than 40 nonprofit organizations, schools and parks to develop area service projects. She has been involved with the group since she was a sophomore.
“It’s been cool to see it evolve every year,” Hilliard says. But on the morning of Make A Difference Day, Oct. 26, as a crowd of volunteers was gathering, Hilliard was struck by the impact she and her classmates were making.
“Everyone gets excited as they get together, and you can see all of the people starting to go out to different projects,” Hilliard says. “You don’t think about how many people volunteer until you see everyone together to celebrate the day.”
Student Daniel Taliaferro McFarland, 21, helped coordinate the school’s efforts this time. “Make A Difference Day is an opportunity for students, faculty, staff and other various members of the community to come together and make a monumental impact on northwest Arkansas,” he says. “I can honestly say that it was an experience of a lifetime.”
A total of 1,326 volunteers worked on projects that ranged from cleaning and stocking the campus food pantry to creating puppets for a local literacy program. Organizers estimated total economic impact at more than $100,000.
“It was great to witness a bigger picture being painted of everyone working together,” says student Lyna Noi Ninkham, 21, who served as the donations coordinator. “Definitely a beautiful sight to see.”
Each project was led by one of 40 student leaders, which Hilliard hopes has a lasting impact. “Instead of just one day of service, it prepares them with working with a nonprofit,” she says. “It gets that connection started in creating those lasting relationships between the volunteers and the agencies.”
Hilliard won’t be on campus next year but still plans to be involved in Make A Difference Day. “I will look for it wherever I end up moving.”
Check out the other Make A Difference Day honorees at www.makeadifferenceday.com/winners.
Want to Know What Makes a City a Great Place to Live?
In honor of National Volunteer Week, April 6-12, USA Weekend and Points of Light are recongizing the 2013 Make A Difference Day honorees, who will be celebrated in Washington, D.C., on April 10. Here we tell the story of a Tennessee community that knows how to come together.
Cleveland, Tenn., residents participate in a bike race to benefit Habitat for Humanity.
, is proud of his community and the way residents pull together. It was evident in the aftermath of a tornado in 2011, and it is evident every year on Make A Difference Day.
“When there is a need, it is amazing how the people turn out,” Rowland says.
At the 2013 event, on Oct. 26, 800 volunteers worked on dozens of activities ranging from a YMCA job fair that helped 64 people find employment, to an effort in which nearly 75
students assembled backpacks for 10,000 children filled with snacks, toothpaste, shampoo and other basics.
“Those went to three elementary schools where kids don’t eat too well when they go home on the weekend,” Rowland says. “They were filled with things that some people may not have and would be a luxury to them.”
Another project was a charity walk that raised more than $15,000 to benefit about 200 children served by
.
“Our income from the walk has nearly doubled every year,” says CASA director Suzanne Wisdom. “All of the funds go to a program that recruits, screens and trains volunteers to represent abused and neglected children in the court system to make sure they have a voice, someone to speak on their behalf. We have more and more children every year needing an advocate.”
Meanwhile, the
raised enough money to build two houses locally at $48,000 each.
But the people of Cleveland didn’t just help their own. They also helped organizations far away. People For Care and Learning held a charity bike ride to raise money to build housing and install sewers system for a village in Cambodia, which is also the site of a new factory outpost of Cleveland’s Murmaid Mattress.
“I am protective about my community,” Rowland says. “I want to encourage people to learn how to give back one day of the year on Make A Difference Day, and to make a difference throughout the year in as many different ways we can find. Look out your front door or your back door and you are going to find something you can do to help somebody.”
Check out the other Make A Difference Day honorees at www.makeadifferenceday.com/winners.
A Different Kind of College Party
In honor of National Volunteer Week, April 6-12, USA Weekend and Points of Light are recognizing the 2013 Make A Difference Day honorees, who will be celebrated in Washington, D.C., on April 10. Here we tell the story of college students who help the local community in numerous ways.
University of Akron students help clean the grounds of the Ronald McDonald house of Akron.
You might expect fraternity members to spend a Saturday morning tossing a ball, washing their cars or just hanging out. But on Make A Difference Day, Oct. 26, Jonathan Wickham, a human resources management major from Wooster, Ohio, and 40 of his Lambda Chi Alpha brothers spent time making blankets for the homeless and repairing toys for disabled kids.
“I never miss Make A Difference Day. In just a few hours, you can make a huge impact,” says Wickham, 21, one of 708
students and staffers from across the school who tackled 60 community projects.
Few schools rival Akron in Make A Difference Day activity. In nine years, 5,800 volunteers have served 21,000 hours, says Alison Doehring, who volunteered each October as a student and now coordinates the day as assistant director of student life: “It’s our largest service initiative by far.”
Students repaired rotting park benches, helped public housing residents clean their apartments, weatherproofed a home for veterans, worked on a
worked with the university to identify seven pressing projects, from enlarging a community garden to dragging tires and shopping carts out of a creek.
At
patients, 10 students did a thorough fall cleanup of the grounds, “supplying muscle we would have had to pay someone else for,” says Meri Skiera, the House’s volunteer coordinator. “Our regular volunteers can’t handle all that work. We save the important jobs for Make A Difference Day, because we can rely on these great University of Akron volunteers.”
Check out the other Make A Difference Day honorees at www.makeadifferenceday.com/winners.
Giving Kids With Disabilities a Safe Place to Play
In honor of National Volunteer Week, April 6-12, USA Weekend and Points of Light are recongizing the 2013 Make A Difference Day honorees, who will be celebrated in Washington, D.C., on April 10. Here we tell the story of an organization that refurbished a center that serves people with disabilities.
Volunteers work to spruce up the grounds of a center that serves people with disabilities in Washington, D.C.
Sometimes it’s not just about the work that gets done. It’s also about how you play.
, in Washington D.C., the local chapter of a nonprofit organization that provides kids with opportunities for safe, meaningful play. That can be hard to come by in some urban areas, where schools can lack safe playgrounds and sometimes have to use neighboring civic recreation centers for recess.
That’s how Vaux-Bjerke became familiar with the D.C. Center for Therapeutic Recreation, which provides services for kids as well as seniors and people with special needs. And she knew the place was looking a bit drab.
“We wanted to do something local to our D.C. community that really affected people of varying abilities,” Vaux-Bjerke says.
Playworks put out the call out for volunteers to come help give the center a facelift on Make A Difference Day, Oct. 26. More than 60 people gathered on the cold fall morning and set to work – refurbishing picnic tables, cleaning and organizing the library, working on landscaping, decorating recycling bins – and working side-by-side with many of the center’s developmentally disabled clients.
“They talked about it for days after,” says Priscilla Jones, a recreation therapist at the center. “It was an awesome day. We don’t experience that too often.”
Clients of the center frequently use (and always notice) the bright yellow picnic tables at the center, and seniors enjoy taking care of the plants and trees indoors. But the physical improvements to the center aren’t what left the most lasting impression on Jones.
“I think what I took away from it was the teamwork with Playworks,” she says. “A lot of volunteers came out willing to do whatever it took to make the building better.”
Check out the other Make A Difference Day honorees at www.makeadifferenceday.com/winners.
