Planning Summer Volunteer Recognition Events

With summer here, we are busy planning fun volunteer recognition events. Different years we have had different types of events, but always had some kind of fun during the summer months. At Appreciate Volunteers, we sharing what has been successful for us in the past and offering up new ideas that we busy planning.

One of the simplest and least expensive has been an ice cream social for our volunteers. The joy of summer foods like ice cream, sherbert and frozen yogurt is always a hit. By serving the ice cream in cones, you can eliminate the costs of bowls, spoons and toppings.

A watermelon party can also be a fun and not-too-expensive way to celebrate your volunteers. If you can get the watermelon donated, or at a reduced price from a local farmer, even better. One year, we even had a seed-spitting contest and gave away goofy prizes to the best and worst spitters. Yep, you can imagine the fun we had with that one!

Barbeques and light luncheons are always popular, but can involve more expense. Try planning a theme around one of these. Something fun like a ball park barbeque can make the event more memorable. Give out baseball caps to all your volunteers and serve up plenty of hotdogs and peanuts. If you can have a baseball game on the radio at the same time, you have great background music.

So think about fun ways to show your volunteers how much they are appreciated this summer. Put on an event that will having everyone enjoying the memories for a long time to come.

Recognize Graduating Volunteers

For many of us, the high school and college students play an important role in our volunteer make-up. So it's equally important that we take some time to celebrate their great achievement of graduating. Most families will plan a graduation party for their own children, but we can plan a celebration for them as well. At Appreciate Volunteers there are many ways to show your appreciation.

If you have a number of graduates this year, it can work easily to have a single celebration to honor them all. For some of these young adult graduates it may mean the end of their volunteer time with us. Some volunteer to complete a community service project for a class. Others will be taking on summer jobs or preparing to move to another location, either to start college or a new job. So this means we want to take some time and thank them for what they have given to our organizations.

Our friend Mandee has prepared a whole series of articles to help plan a graduation party. She shares information about themes, food, presentations, even fun personalized posters of the grads. You can get plenty of ideas and helpful information from her articles. We know we have and will continue to do as we celebrate our graduating volunteers.

Even if you are celebrating just one graduate, this special time in his or her life deserves some recognition from you. A personalized gift of thank you doesn't have to ruin your budget. It can be as simple as a comomerativerefrigerator magnet or a small treasure box that will be a reminder of how much their volunteer time was valued by you and your group.