My Volunteering Story- More than Giving Back

I started volunteering at 10 years old. I really started volunteering at my church St.Andrew's United Church. Every year for pretty much my entire childhood we have had a Spring Car Wash + Bake sale as well as the spring auction. I started volunteering at those events. I fell in love with it just from Volunteering at church. In the summer we would have a annual summer camp, Vacation Bible School. Once you age out of being a camper you are able to be a volunteer. I fell in love with Vacation Bible School just from volunteering every year as a "Junior Leader". I have learned honestly so much just from volunteering at Vacation Bible School. As I got older I also took more of a leadership role in the planning of Vacation Bible School. From Planning the actual camp to planning & teaching the kindergarten program. As I got older we started adding on more and more events like the Halloween party every October, The Christmas Craft Sale in November, The fall fashion show. When we would go down to downtown Toronto to hand out clothing, personal hygiene and food items to the homeless I have volunteered to sort clothes before going down as well as going down to Toronto. Even now with the Pancake Dinner, The Community Dinners that we have been doing pre pandemic I have been at either serving food in one way or helping clean up.

In My second year of High school I joined Halton Healthcare as a Student Volunteer. I didnt really know what I wanted to do with my life after high school so I joined Halton healthcare to see if i wanted to do something in healthcare but also give back to the hospital. I started with handing out snacks to the patients at night, Handing out tea to the staff, handing out meal trays to the patients. I eventually later moved up to the information desk. I am currently still a Halton Healthcare Georgetown Hospital Volunteer on the information desk without the pandemic. The pandemic we are currently still pulled.

Towards the end of my High School Career I did join Inspire Halton which was started by one of my close Friends Alex. I joined because what he was doing with the organization really interested me. I helped organize events including May Madness, Coffee House to support children with Cancer, haunted House.With the haunted house I coordinated the children's crafts & activities that happened outside of the haunted house.

During my second year of high school I joined the cast of On the way to Bethlehem that took place at County Heritage park in Milton up until last year. When I joined I had more than enough volunteer hours for school. I was volunteering because I like to volunteer not because I needed the hours. Little did I know at the time it would be a several year thing for me. The first year I was involved it was below freezing with hail. The entire cast was worried that no one would show up because of weather. But that didnt stop people from coming . Even though the gates closed at 8:30pm we were still out in our sets until well after midnight. The first year I was involved it was 5 nights. The next year my family joined making it a family thing until it ended last year due to the pandemic. The event eventually became a 3 night production. I was able to do what I love of volunteering while telling the story of how Jesus was born.

Over the years I have been involved with various one day events. Last year I was involved with a bottle drive where all the money was going to Upper credit humane society. The organization putting it on Walker Friendship Lodge. My family has been involved with them for years my late grandfather Ron Lovegrove was involved for many years he was one of the founding members of Credit Valley Shrine Club. I ended up getting involved when my uncle who is a current member mentioned that they were collecting empties. I may have blown things up on them enough that I ended up coordinating a drop off location that still made sure to follow covid guidelines. In the end that day we ended up sorting through enough empties to fill a 53 foot shipping container. I went to school for fundraising, Volunteer Management & Event Planning so when i blew things up it wasnt just a little.

in 2014 I volunteered with Drew Hildebrand Race for Teens at risk. The race is a 5k or 10k race through downtown Oakville. Drew Hildebrand Race for teens at risk helps teens at risk for Violence. On event day volunteers arrived at the park at 5am to step up. I handed out metals to everyone at the end of the race. Before the event we put up posters in our towns, made the goody bags.

With Community Unity Halton Hills I have volunteered with them a couple of times. I helped with the spring yard clean up, as well as another event that took place in Cedervale Park. Most recently I helped with the easter basket event in 2019. I had stayed after the community dinner at church to help them set up the gym into basically a grocery store assembly line. The next day I ended up going back to help package up everything so it could be delivered.

My first year of High School I actually joined MYAC, The Mayors Youth Action Committee. Which actually changed names to The Mayors Youth Advisory Committee while I was part of it. I learned so much from my time as a volunteer with them. I volunteered at Coffee Houses, the big daddy event downtown, the awards that happened every year around May.

Right now with Halton Hills Quilters Guild I am the volunteer Marketing/Publicity/Public Relations Coordinator. I run all of their Social Media Accounts. I also create all of the power point presentations for the monthly zoom meetings. I also help out with membership, organizing online events.

Over my many years of volunteering, I have never volunteered because I have had to or I was told to. I have never volunteered because I wanted a contact in a organization. I have volunteered because I truly have loved doing it. Having volunteered in so many different organizations over the years it truly has been what sparked my interest in Fundraising, Volunteer Management & Event planning. Fundraising & Volunteer Management especially. I enrolled in and graduated in both of those programs because of the impact volunteering in the community has done. I enjoy giving back to our community through everything I have done.