Wow - its almost that time of year again....the time of year that Volunteer Coordinators and Managers know will be B-U-S-Y! Its April......National Volunteer Week and all that goes along with it is right around the corner.

With over 200 volunteers putting in over 6500 hours towards the Galt in 2007, celebrating them and showing them how much we appreciate them, truly is impossible. However, we do our best to show them that they are important and crucial to our operations.

Over the years I have tried to offer our volunteers many opportunities and thank-yous.......we give our volunteers "museum moolah" which looks like monopoly money that they can use in our museum store.......we do a lot of social things such as a dragonboat team that competes in July; we just bowled in the Big Brothers Big Sisters fundraiser (and may I brag and say that it was a Galt volunteer who won top score for the night!)......we offer informal recognition with thank yous and other everyday demonstrations of appreciation....and we offer the formal thank yous such as a National Volunteer Week event. We also nominate volunteers for awards all the time - in fact, most years we end up having a major award winner in the local youth volunteer awards handed out (the Leaders of Tomorrow awards).

With the face of volunteerism changing to one of a more episodic nature, we have many more volunteers contributing to the museum - some donate only a few hours/year, some we only see for a few months every few years! We have volunteers from all parts of society too - we have English as a Second Language volunteers; people from 12-80 years of age; volunteers with differing abilities; and volunteers from many ethnic backgrounds.

Its definitely an interesting job being a volunteer coordinator......and a very busy one right now, knowing that with so many different people, I cannot meet everyone's needs.....but this is the month where I try - I try to show the appreciation of all of the staff at the Galt Museum, and all of the public who visit the Galt, and let our volunteers know how important they are to us - every single one of them!

~Let me know if you'd like to come to our volunteer/staff party on April 16 - RSVP by APril 10 to 320-4219). Hopefully no one thinks they haven't done enough to come to this - its open to ALL past and present volunteers and staff......

~and if you want to volunteer at the Galt - check out www.volunteerlethbridge.com for our current opportunities

~ and if you have any suggestions for volunteer opportunities - please post them here! We're always excited about new possibilities and things that interest you, to help us achieve our goals of preserving and sharing our history and stories!

HAPPY NATIONAL VOLUNTEER WEEK and GLOBAL YOUTH SERVICES DAY in April!