INNISFAIL – The legendary Muhammad Ali once said service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.
Many have enthusiastically embraced the words of the late boxing champ and inspirational civil rights leader.
“Volunteers have certainly been a godsend to a lot of people, and I don’t know what we would do without volunteers,” said Mayor Jim Romane. “In a lot of situations, even with health care right now, we are depending on volunteers, people heading out to get through this COVID. They deserve the recognition. Volunteers are a major part of our communities.”
The notion of being of service to others has long been embraced in Innisfail, and last week, while COVID-19 continued to blaze through its third wave, the community quietly paused to honour the town’s many givers.
It was National Volunteer Week from April 18 to 24, with the theme The Value of One, The Power of Many, a message to embrace the many acts of kindness by millions of individuals, including those in Innisfail.
Sandy Wacker, the town’s community supports and age friendly coordinator, was at the entrance of No Frills grocery store on April 22, following a visit to the Co-op on April 20. She was joined by volunteer Dianne Mainville to offer passing volunteers a special gift package.
“There was probably lots of things we could do but we wanted to be respectful of COVID and making sure we did our part in making sure we kept our community safe, and so this is only one way we have chosen to do that this week,” said Wacker. “We want to celebrate our volunteers, and we want to offer a thank you for what they do for our community and for everything in town.
“It has been a little bit more difficult this year. We’ve had to improvise and try to find a different way to congratulate and thank our volunteers for everything they’ve done.
"So, this year instead of getting together in a larger group we just needed to say a little thank you and we’ve put together a package of some stuff for them.”
Each package was put together by volunteers. They contained several items, including a face mask, hand sanitizer, playing cards, granola bars pens, and an AHS activity guide.
Volunteers passing by Wacker and Mainville stopped by for a brief chat, and to say thank you, best wishes and express gratitude for the pleasure it always is to serve the community and its citizens.
Wacker emphasized that even through the last 13 months of the pandemic the town’s committed core of volunteers have still stepped up for the community.
“We have so many dedicated volunteers in our community who volunteer anything from today’s Dianne being with us, handing out these kits to our volunteers,” said Wacker.
“There are volunteers helping to put on sporting events for kids. There is so many ways people are still volunteering, and any time we have reached out to them we’ve had a great response.”
As for the future of volunteerism in the community, Wacker is hopeful and optimistic Innisfail will continue to be well served.
“I am hopeful. I think that our younger generation does want to give back,” she said. “I’m just not sure if they really know how or what opportunities are available to them. Part of our job will be to educate the younger generation, and how they can get involved, even in just small ways of how they can make a difference.”
