Volunteers and Halloween: A Great Match

One of the most fun holidays to celebrate with volunteers is Halloween. For some reason, they go together very well.

At Appreciate Volunteers, we have been enjoying talking about fun ways to show our volunteers how important they are to us with Halloween celebrations. Everything from simple dishes filled with that great tradition Halloween candy corn to costume contests.

Not every situation works for costume events on the job, but if your group can allow costumes, that is a fun for your volunteers to celebrate the holiday.

Of course, much of this takes a little planning and promoting time, so you need to be thinking about what you will do for your volunteers this Halloween. Waiting til  the last minute will result in something that may be too simple for what you want to do. Get started so that you can say Thank You to those great volunteers who make your group or organization work.

Start Planning for Fall Volunteer Recognition Events

If you use the holidays that are coming up in the Fall to have a special event for your volunteer recognition, it's time to start the thinking and planning process. Halloween, Thanksgiving, even Christmas are popular times to hold a volunteer recognition event.

This kinds of events do take some planning and foresight. The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas are very popular for holding annual parties for companies and organizations. That means many good venues will be booked ahead of time. So it will take some searching on your part to find a good place to hold your event.

You also need to consider who you need to approvals from. Often times, you need to get on the calendar for board meetings, if they are required to approve an event like this. Again, advance planning helps.

Dealing with menus and themes are important considerations, too. If you like to celebrate Halloween with your volunteers, you can find some fun and easy ways here. But, you may also be using this for your annual volunteer recognition event, so awards and personalized gifts will need to be ordered.

Starting early for your planning will help you have a more leisurely fall and a much better volunteer recognition event this year. So don't put it off. You'll thank me later. 

Recognition Ideas for Summer Volunteers

For many of us, those students off for summer vacation have volunteered their time to help us out. It's getting on time for them to return to school. It's time to start thinking about the ways that we will thank them for being part of group.

The extra hands during the summer certainly made a difference for us. So we want to do something special to show our appreciation. For our boys who have helped out, we are giving them personalized caps. Each has their name on it and a note of thanks from us. We included our logo in the design.

For the college bound girls, we are giving them a treasure box. Again, personalized with thanks and our logo. For the high school and younger girls who helped, we have chosen a personalized notebook. 

An ice cream social is in order to celebrate the many hours of time they all put in to help us out. All our student volunteers enjoy ice cream so this was a no-brainer for us. For you, there may be other types of fun food that you can make an event out of for your student volunteers who are returning to school.

Because we have had recognition events and given appreciation gifts to our student volunteers for many years, we have gotten some wonderful volunteers returning each year to help us out. I'd say that's an investment in our future success.

Celebrate Weird Contest Week with Volunteers

We've had some fun using wacky holidays to celebrate our volunteers, but we have another one to share with you. The third week of August is Weird Contest Week. This one will take just a bit more planning on your part, but it doesn't have to involve a lot of expense. At Appreciate Volunteers, we have come up with a fun one that can take the whole week and doesn't cost much either. Find out more about our idea for paper napkin corsages.

But, that's just one idea. If you want to combine another fun event, plan a watermelon party and use a seed spitting contest. That's a pretty weird contest if you ask me.

Animal rescue groups can make use of this week to have naming contests for the next so-many animals that will need to be named. Of course, giving out cute awards as thank yous.

Take advantage of Weird Contest Week to make the workplace fun for your volunteers. It will be a great way to show your appreciation and help you retain those precious volunteers.

Use Thank You Cards for Volunteer Appreciation

One of the easiest things we can do for our volunteers is to remember to say thanks. But, in our hectic work schedule, sometimes that's hard to do. Make thank yous a little easier on yourself by using Thank You cards. 

These don't have to elaborate, but make them a simple way to remember to thank volunteers. Set up your schedule for at least the next several months. Have a collection of cards available within your monthly or weekly folder. Every time a volunteer crosses a milestone in service hours or anniversaries, even small milestones, prepare a thank you card.

Sending via the mail is a great way to say thank you, but hand delivering as the volunteer arrives or leaves works out well, also. Make sure to add a little personal note, even if you use the customization features for cards online.

See our choices for wonderful thank you cards for volunteers at Appreciate Volunteers and get lots more ideas for simple ways to show appreciation to your volunteers.

Wacky Holidays for Volunteer Fun, Part 2

For the month of June, Appreciate Volunteers is using wacky holidays to celebrate our volunteers. Planning for these wacky holidays may take a little, but we are happy to do what we can for the volunteers. We started off with ideas for the whole month, like National Blueberry Month. Now we continue the food theme in Part 2.

Lots of fun days during the month of July to bring special foods in to the work place. Any excuse we can use to thank our volunteers and recognize the time and effort they put in is what we are aiming for here.

Try July 20th, National Lollipop Day. Decorate a nice large lollipop with a ribbon and an attached card that says something simple like: Thanks to our volunteers. Give one to each volunteer on July 20th. There are plenty of fun days to make use of for your volunteer appreciations. So take advantage of one or two and do a little extra.

This doesn't mean a huge and expensive event if you don't have the time and budget. It can be simple. And quite inexpensive. So don't be afraid of doing small things as thank yous. Make sure to visit Appreciate Volunteers for more ideas.

Thanking Volunteers with Wacky Holidays

It's fun to celebrate wacky holidays and a great excuse to thank our volunteers for their efforts. At Appreciate Volunteers, that just what is going on in the month of June. Of course, these do take some planning, so the holidays for July are being featured. That gives you time to get the celebration planned out.

The month of July gives us several fun ways to celebrate the whole month. National Blueberry Month, Eggplant and Lettuce Month, Mango and Melon Month, and Sandwich Generation Month. Planning for Volunteer Appreciation with Wacky Holidays in July gives you lots of ways to make use of these holidays to do special things for your volunteers.

Some are as simple as bringing blueberry muffins to work for your volunteers. But, another idea takes things further. You can get ideas for having a lunch to thank volunteers and let them build their own sandwiches and name them. Then give them a small, personalized gift of appreciation with their sandwich name on it.

Depending on your budget, you can go all out, or keep it very simple. But this kind of idea can work great for all sorts of wacky holidays. The key here is to do something special for your volunteers in appreciation of their time and effort given to your group or organization. So enjoy those special times and visit Appreciate Volunteers for more ideas.