The Municipality of Boissevain-Morton wants to make sure people keep volunteering or better yet new people get involved with community organizations.

The council hosted a Volunteer Appreciation Night on Tuesday with close to 100 people from 60 organizations attending the supper and presentation.

Wendy Bullock with Building Up presented some facts and figures pertaining to how important volunteers are to every town and Manitoba’s economy. "I wanted to reinforce that people need to stay involved with volunteer work.”

“49.1 per cent of Manitobans volunteer for a total of 63 million hours of volunteering per year. We know volunteer helps out in all capacities and many groups did struggle through the pandemic, but they are bounding back,” said Bulloch.

 

Head of Council Judy Swanson feel sit was important to say thanks to the volunteers and the organizations they represent.

“We’re delighted because it was a fun evening, and it was a good evening to getting back to thinking about volunteerism. As a municipality we can’t carry it but we can certainly encourage it and to say thanks.”

“If any of these organizations were to fail there would be a void in the community,” said Swanson.

 

Wendy Bulloch says many groups are struggling to get board members.

“It’s a struggle and I don’t know if anything has changed but we need to be more astute how we ask and how we recruit. I firmly believe we need to recruit year-round and do a better job keeping track of things and what groups and the volunteer roles are with different groups.”

Up next the Municipality of Boissevain-Morton will print out the findings of Tuesday’s meeting and that information will be posted on the municipality’s website.

 

“This was such a success we have to consider doing something. If any groups want Volunteer Manitoba to come back that can be arranged but we need to know what groups want.

 

Wendy Bulloch

Wendy Bulloch with Building Up talking about the importance of volunteers.