They help Okotoks all year, so it’s only fitting the Town it is having a week to honour the many volunteers in the area.
The Town of Okotoks kicked off Volunteer Week on Saturday with some music, eats and a show of gratitude at the Olde Towne Plaza. It was all in advance of National Volunteer Week, April 23-29.
“This is our way of kicking it off and starting our celebrations,” said Sian Anderson, Okotoks FCSS volunteer administrator. “We will be in different stores and various locations with Maple Leaf Messaging.
“We have maple leaves (pieces of paper) in which people can share how they volunteer and why the volunteer.”
The volunteer’s maple leaves will then be put in a Canadian flag mural.
There could be more maple leaves created in Okotoks than can be seen on drive through Quebec in the fall for the changing of the colours.
“The numbers would blow your mind if we tried to accumulate the number of hours for that (volunteering),” Anderson said.
“Just for the Town of Okotoks, it would be thousands and thousands of hours.”
One of those volunteers for the Town of Okotoks is Philip Taylor-Smith, a student at St. Mary’s University. He volunteers with Okotoks’ aquatics programs.
“I volunteer with swim lessons,” Taylor-Smith said. “I am basically helping kids learn how to float who are struggling with their lessons.
“I enjoy it because I am not so much focused on the class, but I’m helping with individual kids. Even just helping the kids get their face under water, that can be hard for some of them.”
Taylor-Smith, said the experience is not only rewarding personally, but will also look good on a resume when he hits the work-force full time.
Okotokian Brandy Dunne is studying for a new vocation, but she’s using her old job to help the Rowan House Emergency Shelter.
The shelter is a place where women and their children can go to leave an abusive relationship.
“I volunteer in child-care, for the past 15 years I was with an education assistant in B.C.,” Dunne said. “Now I am shifting gears, going back to school and I have time to be a volunteer.”
She is studying to be an embalmer, but she spends about fours hours a week bringing joy into young children’s lives.
“I was looking for someplace to volunteer and when I saw about Rowan House on-line and they got back to me right away,” she said.
“I enjoy working with the different kids — they are wonderful.
“I think I can offer something with my experience, it just seemed like a good fit.”
Bev Brecka is doing hands-on work volunteer work at Rowan House.
“I do crafts with the ladies,” Brecka said. “It’s a time where they can just forget about their troubles,” Brecka said. “It’s just amazing to see the difference in the women – they just light up. It’s a joy to see.”
Brecka also spreads the good word about the work of Rowan House.
“I also go to events and help out — working at awareness tables, such as at the Millarville Fair.
“Rowan House is important to me because I am all about women’s rights and supporting women — it’s dear to my heart.”
Volunteers of all ages were recognized at the Town of Okotoks Leaders of Tomorrow banquet earlier this month.
Some of the volunteer stories throughout the Foothills will be heard on Eagle 100.9 in the morning throughout the week.
