Volunteer appreciation evening and local events!
A huge thank you to all the lovely volunteers who were able to make our inaugural National Volunteer Appreciation Evening.
It was so wonderful to see your smiling faces and to hear why you volunteer. Your words were so powerful and we hope you love the word cloud created just as much as we do.
A special thank you to Craig Heatley, Gillian Graham-Crowe and Heidi Vickers for sharing their volunteering stories.
As always we commenced the meeting with our Acknowledgement to Country, thank you to Sara for doing so beautifully.
Ally, our National Volunteer Co-ordinator shared the below poem written by Jude Simpson
How Big Could a Thank-You Be?
How big could a thank-you be?
Postcard-sized? A4? A3?
A bunch of flowers? The size of a tree?
Painted on the side of a building like a Banksy?
How loud could a thank-you sound?
Like an anthem sung by a football growd?
A directly-overhead thundercloud?
A hundred trumpets, brass band-bound?
Could I write it in the sky, with a plane?
Dangle a banner from a lofty crane?
Inscribe the snow on a mountain range?
Or, big or small, is it just the same?
If I could somehow pre-record
a year’s worth of daily applause,
compress it into a moment that roars
as though the ocean’s at your door,
would it mean more?
If I shouted and bawled,
would you get the gist of it
more than if I whispered it?
Even if I could re-align planets,
spell out my than-you with stars and span it
from one galaxy to the next, hand it
from great bear to little bear, would that expand it
Is bigger better?
I’d say not
for we see the same beauty in a field of tulips
as in a single snowdrop.
And however large my thank-you became,
it could never match up to what you gave.
Why try? What a thank-you needs, instead,
is to be genuine
given freely,
be true,
and be said
We want you to know that we see what you do.
We knot the great benefit your work acccurues
Thank you again to all our wonderful volunteers.
If you are keen to volunteer with us visit Red Nose - Volunteer