Spirit of the Community
By Jeff Moffitt
@moffittjc (128840)
Gainesville, Florida
January 27, 2016 8:35pm CST
This evening, I was privileged to attend an awards ceremony to honor nominees for "Spirit of the Community" awards in the city I live in! It is a annual recognition program sponsored by our city's newspaper to honor those people who are volunteering their time to make our community a better place!
I nominated a husband and wife team who have formed a non-profit group to provide recreation programs to special needs children in our community free of charge. They run baseball, soccer and swimming programs for children with physical and cognitive disabilities. And they don't charge a penny for their programs! All their time is donated, all their staff are volunteers, and all their funding comes from donations and fundraisers. They do this full-time!
Although they didn't win the coveted overall award (there were over 50 nominees in 5 categories), they were winners in my book. In fact, all nominees were winners, whether they took home a trophy or not!
I was also elated to see that one of my co-workers, and another community advocate I work with, were also nominated! That meant there were three nominees there whom I personally work with on a daily basis!
Does your city, town or community have any type of reward or recognition program for outstanding volunteerism in your community?
10 people like this
12 responses
@moffittjc (128840)
• Gainesville, Florida
28 Jan 16
It's nice to see that communities all over the world recognize their local heroes!
@Missmwngi (12915)
• Nairobi, Kenya
28 Jan 16
None that i have heard of. Thats a great way to motivate people to volunteer
2 people like this
@Blondie2222 (28610)
• United States
30 Jan 16
I haven't heard of our community doing something like this. But i have heard of awards going to those that help others in need and go above and beyond what they do at their jobs.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128840)
• Gainesville, Florida
29 Jan 16
It's nice to see these people publicly recognized! I know the people don't volunteer strictly for the recognition, but it is nice to see them rewarded for their efforts. It also shows that the community appreciates them!
@Elizaby (6902)
• Pensacola, Florida
28 Jan 16
There are several here with one that is all women donating 1000 each that the award from these donations being divide between five non profit groups. More and more women join every yeat that the reward has become quite large. And then there are a couple of different programs that honor individual volunteers of the year.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128840)
• Gainesville, Florida
28 Jan 16
that is a very good idea to all take up a collection to donate to a worthwhile charity group!
1 person likes this
@Elizaby (6902)
• Pensacola, Florida
28 Jan 16
@moffittjc Impact 100 started several years ago with the original goal of having100 womenn and had over a 100 that year and last year there were at least a couple of thousand if not more and they are just starting this year's campaign.
@moffittjc (128840)
• Gainesville, Florida
28 Jan 16
@Elizaby That is quite a large number! Do they keep increasing their goal each year?
1 person likes this
@VivaLaDani13 (60812)
• Perth, Australia
10 Jan 18
@moffittjc I do know that things like this would go on. Though I can't say I've ever been to one or know anyone who has.
I like how these events take place though. Some people really deserve recognition for the things they do.
It's like when you told us all about how gifts are given to Police as a thank you for their work and efforts. Not all police are bad and a lot of them deserve to know that they are respected.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128840)
• Gainesville, Florida
10 Jan 18
I am currently working on a nomination form to recognize one of our volunteers who gives his time to help run our youth baseball league. He has spent so many hours over the past three years helping build the program from less than 40 kids to over 400 kids today. That's quite an amazing accomplishment, and this volunteer deserves most of the recognition for helping foster that growth in our program.
1 person likes this
@VivaLaDani13 (60812)
• Perth, Australia
10 Jan 18
@moffittjc oh my goodness! I wish I could help out with that! That is amazing and definitely worth to be recognised!
1 person likes this
@suziecat7 (3349)
• Asheville, North Carolina
28 Jan 16
We have more specific awards like River Link, Citizen Lawyer, etc. Glad you enjoyed the ceremony.
@moffittjc (128840)
• Gainesville, Florida
28 Jan 16
Have you ever attended those awards, or nominated someone, or even received one of them? Just curious!
@Shavkat (141905)
• Philippines
28 Jan 16
In my country, they do acknowledge the undeniably selfless act in helping other people. I, myself had my own share when I volunteered in Central Asia. I transferred my professional skills to the local people under the umbrella of an international NGO. It was really overwhelming to work with the local people. I may not received any recognition from it. But I left my legacy in this particular country. I am still connected with the UK-based NGO and offered missions to Africa areas. However, I turned them down. I am not refusing it but I still know that volunteerism is not an easy task. It detest your patience and put all the sacrifices in life. Perhaps I could still pursue it in the future. I am still young and needs to enhance my skills.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128840)
• Gainesville, Florida
29 Jan 16
That is nice that something is done for the volunteers and social workers! It doesn't always have to be big and fancy! Sometimes, just little gestures of appreciation can go a long way!
1 person likes this
@Drosophila (16568)
• Ireland
29 Jan 16
None that I know of, actually I got my volunteer deferred because the process is so rigorous.. Am still waiting to pass all the security checks!
@Drosophila (16568)
• Ireland
29 Jan 16
@moffittjc Oh ya, the volunteer person reassured me it's nothing personal.
@moffittjc (128840)
• Gainesville, Florida
29 Jan 16
@Drosophila We are doing the same thing with our volunteers. The process is so much more cumbersome now for our volunteers to get cleared to help out.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128840)
• Gainesville, Florida
29 Jan 16
The security checks are definitely getting more stringent these days. But I guess that is to protect everyone involved.
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11134)
• United Kingdom
28 Jan 16
Quite possibly but I don't have much to do with that sort of thing. What this couple do is lovely though. And how fabulous to get recognition. :)
@moffittjc (128840)
• Gainesville, Florida
29 Jan 16
It is nice to see people get recognized for their volunteerism and support of helping the community! Too often these things go unreported or underappreciated!
