The Town of Olds Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) held its annual Volunteer Appreciation Event on Friday evening at the Olds College Alumni Centre.
The Volunteer of the Year awards were handed out in three categories during the festivities.
Mukulu Shamvu was the recipient of the Youth Citizen Volunteer of the Year award. Shamvu says he has been raised in the church his entire life, but it is not until recently that he put his own faith in Jesus Christ. “I believe that the spirit of giving and all this generosity it is really servitude, where you put other people before yourself. So I decided to take that to heart. I decided that, not my will, but I wanted to let God’s will be done in my life and whatever that looked like however I served other people, whatever events I volunteered in, then I allowed him to really take control. Really anything that I did for the community it was the Holy Spirit that was working through me, and inspiring me, inspiring other people.
Other winners at the Town of Olds FCSS Volunteer Appreciation Event including Betty Baril for Citizen Volunteer of the Year. She says it is amazing to recieve the award, she wasn’t expecting it, and she is very honoured. “I enjoy it and I like to give back to the town. Olds is amazing, we have so many good service groups here in town. One thing I do like about the Kiwanis is we deal mainly with children and that is my main thing. I do like helping children that is why I do the breakfast program, that is why we do the playgrounds. Books, literacy, we are involved in literacy. So that is my main goal.”
Mary Devolin took home the honours for Senior Citizen Volunteer of the Year.
National Volunteer Week ran from April 14th through the 20th.