International Volunteer Day (IVD) 2017, “Volunteers Act First. Here. Everywhere.”, is being celebrated worldwide on December 5, in recognition of the positive solidarity of volunteers around the world who answer calls in times of crisis, help save lives and support those who want to continue living their lives with dignity. #VolunteersActFirst
Volunteers are often front-line responders for other all types of crises – from spontaneous natural disasters, volunteer telephone counsellors, or those who provide daily welfare checks on older people and people with disabilities that instigate emergency contact procedures when someone may have fallen at home.
For International Volunteer Day 2017, we showcase volunteers responding to people’s needs in a wide range of crisis situations, in both developing and industrialized countries: volunteers helping people affected by political instability and armed conflicts, natural disasters, forced migration, health emergencies and food crises. Because #VolunteersActFirst
QORF would like to acknowledge all the volunteers in the outdoor sector throughout Queensland with out whom many of the opportunities for people to get outdoors and lead healthy active lifestyles would be severely compromised.
Our recent Queensland Outdoor Recreation Awards Dinner held on October 27th celebrated many individuals who exemplify the volunteering spirit. Claire Bourke from the Australian Trail Horse Riders Association received the Queensland Government Outstanding Achievement Award (Individual) and Scouts Queensland both the Brisbane City Council Outdoor Event Awards and the Outdoors Queensland Distinguished Achiever Award.
The UN International Volunteer Day has some great resources on their website that you can explore when thinking of celebrating December 5 with your volunteers – please share them with the person in your organisation responsible for Marketing.
Volunteering Australia will also be providing resources for International Volunteer Day in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more information.
