Service clubs help make Elgin County stronger by funding local projects, supporting neighbours in need, hosting community events, and creating places where people can connect, contribute, and belong.
Tracy Robinson, Executive Director of the Elgin-St. Thomas Community Foundation explains that she was invited to a meeting of area service clubs where an effort was inititated to address problems shared by the various service clubs.
One of the resulting initiatives is a cooperative effort between Volunteer Elgin and the Elgin-St. Thomas Community Foundation to enhance the efforts of the clubs and their volunteer members, while simplifying efforts to contact the organizations through the Service Club Directory located at http://volunteerelgin.org
Robinson continues, “And we’re working with the service clubs to say get a generic email address, like info@ or something like that. When you transition from one person taking care of it to another, that’s your coordination. But to the public, the email address or the number is always the same. Those little tweaks can really help with volunteers.
“And newcomers get to know what service clubs are around and how to get involved.
“And then on Oct. 8, we are inviting Heather Montgomery to visit from Volunteer Canada to speak to us and do a workshop on volunteer recruitment and retention.”
Robinson continues, “I’m St. Thomas proud, so we’re going to take Heather to Harvest Hands to see a success story when it comes to volunteers.Harvest Hands very much relies on volunteers. And it’s an example of a robust volunteer workforce, so we’re going to show off what’s happening that’s good in Elgin-St. Thomas around volunteerism as well.”
She stresses, “We’re spunky here and have a lot of good ideas. In my experience, and in the year I’ve had in this role, there’s a great deal of goodwill and cohesiveness in working together. And that’s enabled a lot of things to move faster and better than they have in other communities.
For more information on Volunteer Elgin, visit volunteerelgin.org
To learn more about the Elgin-St. Thomas Community Foundation, visit http://www.escf.ca
Written by Ian McCallum
