Chester Borrows: Volunteers dedicated to community

Imagine emergency services without volunteers like firefighters and ambulance officers. Imagine schools without parents helping with readings, on school trips or gala days, volunteers visiting in hospitals and rest homes, delivering meals on wheels, supporting victims of crime. Imagine the Canterbury earthquake clean-ups without the "farmy" and the student armies in support. No wonder that a recent study showed that the most significant activity or circumstance that brought lasting happiness was not money, fame, friends, or status but volunteering.
This week is Volunteer Awareness Week, the theme of which is "Every Minute Counts". It highlights that volunteers provide an invaluable contribution to our society and that every minute of their work does indeed count for something - for the development and betterment of both society and the individual. It acknowledges the vital contribution volunteers make in a myriad of ways.
We can take pride in our high level of volunteering across virtually every sector of our community. About one third of New Zealanders volunteer in different organisations and in different ways each year. The New Zealand non-profit sector estimated that volunteers make up 67 per cent of the non-profit workforce, equal to over 133,800 full-time positions.
I have on a number of occasions been given the chance to thank volunteers officially, such as in the presentation of a 50-year service medal at the Opunake Volunteer Fire Brigade, or a speech at the Volunteer Whanganui Volunteer Recognition Awards. There are a whole manner of ways in which awards and recognitions are bestowed on people who volunteer - from Queens Awards for services to country to cards sent by kindy kids.
But we also need remember those who volunteer in our local communities, thanking them and valuing the work they do. The process of people giving back through volunteering and donating to their local communities is self-perpetuating and sustainable, and so is a valuable way through which to grow better futures for our families and neighbourhoods. And it's not all one directional.
Volunteer organisations and charities often create the space for people who need help to help themselves. I've been told that if we assign a dollar value to volunteer labour and combine this with personal donations, we can estimate that 37 per cent of the revenue of the community and voluntary sector comes from the communities themselves.
Volunteers enhance communities, culture, the economy, our environment and individual wellbeing. I would like to acknowledge the outstanding contribution so many people already make and encourage other New Zealanders to offer what time they can to help their communities.