Volunteers gather at Dominion Gardens Park in Georgetown for free treats and Fun.
Volunteers from across Halton Hills made their way to Dominion Gardens park in Georgetown yesterday (17/6/22) for Halton Hills volunteer appreciation day. For a day, roles were reversed with town staff, councillors and Mayor Rick Bonnette, all on site volunteering at various stations, to show Halton Hills’ hardest working volunteers a good time.
Upon arriving and checking in, volunteers were given a scavenger hunt check list that they would need to get stamped at various stations. Everyone who completed the scavenger hunt would be entered to win a draw.
There was free ice cream, food, refreshments, music, magic, game stations, and more, all situated around the scenic setting of Dominion Gardens park.
Acton UP spoke with Mayor Rick Bonnette,
“This event first of all is a way of thanking all of our volunteers.”
“Without the volunteers in our community we’d be in a lot of trouble, we couldn’t afford to hire all of these people, even this park, Dominion Gardens, we have volunteers who do the planting and weeding and everything else. So it saves us a lot of dollars, and it gets people involved.”
Acton UP asked Gail Pirtchard, from’ Friends of the Seed House Garden’, who volunteers her time to maintain the garden where the event was taking place, what she had thought of the day…
“I had thought it was amazing, it’s too bad that there’s not a few more people to enjoy the music and the gardens, but ya, the township has done a wonderful thing”.
Her husband, Peter Pirtchard who also volunteers says “The town has done a great job, I don’t know if they’ve ever done it before, but it is certainly a great initiative.”
Normally the event would have taken place inside the Gellert community centre, but because planning was started back in February, during higher covid rates, the town decided to move the event outside for the first time.
Mayor Rick Bonnette stressed the importance of volunteering,
“I think the importance of volunteering is helping your community, it helps your fellow citizens and it gives a lot of people self esteem. Especially when you look at seniors you have an opportunity to meet new friends.” He continue “they get out, they meet new friends and it’s a social event. It not only helps the whole community, but the person themselves, a lot of people grow.”
If people would like to volunteer at Friends of the Seed House Garden more information can be found here, and for those looking for other volunteer opportunities in Halton Hills, you can check out more info here on the Town's website, or go to Volunteer Halton here.
Check out some photos of the day below...
Comments