Volunteers are the lifeblood of the Sunshine Coast. There are more than 430 non-profit organizations from Langdale to Egmont that, just to survive, rely on volunteers and the thousands of hours they give annually.
The St. Mary's Hospital Auxiliary volunteers alone number around 470 and they contributed 62,858 hours of service to the Sunshine Coast community last year.
Volunteers with the auxiliary do things like knit caps for newborn babies, make sure residents in care homes get birthday parties, fund training for extended care staff and volunteers, make dolls for kids in the hospital, create and distribute chemo comfort bags to cancer patients, operate the loan cupboard, hospital gift store and St. Mary's Hospital Thrift Store and much more. They also continually raise money for the hospital, bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.
Another health-related volunteer force on the Coast are the more than 150 volunteers with Vancouver Coastal Health who provide services like volunteer shopping and driving, meals on wheels and the telephone tree, a newer service that has volunteers call seniors daily to check in and make sure they're OK.
None of these well-subscribed programs would be available without volunteer help, coordinator Ceri Bowles said.
"No volunteers, no programs. If we didn't have volunteer drivers we wouldn't be able to do meals on wheels for sure. The same thing with driving people to Vancouver and doctors' appointments. There would be no one to phone, no one to visit," Bowles said. "None of them would be running without the volunteers."
Sunshine Coast Volun-teer Centre coordinator Cathy Smider said that's the case for most of the 430 non-profit organizations she knows about on the Coast.
Smider keeps an up-to-date list of organizations that rely on volunteer help on the local www.scvolunteer.com website. She noted that last year she helped refer 420 prospective volunteers to organizations looking for help.
Operating out of the Visitor Information Centre in Sechelt, Smider said her job is to help connect volunteers to organizations that need them and to keep an up-to-date list of non-profits for the community to peruse. She also works with non-profit groups to help them develop strategies to attract and retain volunteers.
"Volunteers are essential to a vital, healthy community," Smider said. "And when you think of all the things on the Coast that are run by volunteers or that are augmented by volunteers, it's unbelievable."
Volunteer groups on the Coast include, but aren't limited to, service clubs like Rotary Clubs, the Lions Clubs and the Royal Canadian Legions, church groups, parent groups and animal shelters. We also count on volunteers to be coaches and firefighters, to sit on committees and rally groups when matters come up that need attention. Volunteers also make posters, set up Facebook pages and websites and get the word out about important events that need community support.
Without volunteers hundreds of important programs and services that thousands of Coasters rely on would fold.
Knowing the importance of volunteers across Canada, National Volunteer Week was set up in the 1960s to pause and take notice of the countless volunteers that make our world better.
This year that week is celebrated around the country from April 21 to 27.
The public is asked to thank a volunteer for his or her contributions during this week either in person or publicly on the Volunteer Canada website at www.volunteer.ca.
"The theme of this year's National Volunteer Week campaign recognizes the individual volunteers across Canada who dedicate themselves to improving their communities," the website states.
"Volunteers have a passion for getting involved. They take action to support the causes and organizations that matter to them, and they make an impact in our communities."
