Firstly I want to start this update off by saying a huge thank you to all of you who have contributed in some way over the past 12 months. April is Volunteer Appreciation Month, and although we hope you know how much we appreciate all of you every month, April is a great opportunity for us to talk a little about the impact that volunteers have on our WCA community.
In 2020, WCA Volunteers donated 12,008 hours of their time which is the equivalent of 6 full-time staff members. Volunteers helped with many projects from ribbon making to donation drives to our holiday sponsorship. We could not have run all of our programs so successfully without your help! As well as helping with some of our client-facing opportunities, volunteers also helped behind the scenes, whether it is serving on one of our event committees such as The SUE B 5K /10 K, to working with some of our program staff to help with administrative tasks. We are so grateful for all levels of support. Excitingly in 2020, our virtual volunteer information sessions were attended by 111 members of our local community, who were all hoping to learn more about how they could help The WCA during the unprecedented times of 2020.
As well as celebrating throughout April, many non-profits and other organizations chose to focus their efforts during appreciation week from April 18th- 24th. At The WCA, we are following suit. Throughout the week we will be spotlighting some of our volunteers on social media giving you an opportunity to learn more about their journey with The WCA! On April 19th we will also be hosting a special Facebook Live starting at noon where we will have different members of our team talk about the impact that volunteers have had on their program areas as well as hopefully hearing from some volunteers directly! We hope you will join us! The Facebook Live can be accessed through our main Women’s and Children’s Alliance Facebook page and we will also be sharing it on our Volunteer Facebook page!
Finally, I am very pleased to announce that we have hired Lupe Ingham as our new Volunteer and Events Coordinator! We are thrilled to have Lupe onboard in this position. Lupe will be starting full-time in this new position on May 1st, and will introduce herself properly during our May Newsletter and on the Volunteer Facebook page! I hope you will join me in welcoming Lupe!
Thank you again volunteers for all you do to help the WCA achieve our mission of safety healing and freedom from domestic abuse and sexual assault.