Volunteers come in all shapes, sizes and abilities but all have one thing in common – ‘they’re all out to make a difference’.

Every year in Scotland the first week of June is recognised as Volunteers Week; collectively thousands of charities and voluntary organisations will take time to recognise and celebrate the vital contributions that their volunteers make in cities, towns, villages and local communities everywhere across the country. Volunteering is making a more significant difference than ever before and here in Aberdeenshire approximately one third of our population, incredibly that’s more than 70,000 people, are volunteering or have been recently volunteering in communities from Banff to Braemar, St Combs to St Cyrus and everywhere else in-between.

Many of our AVA Member Organisations will be aware of the difference that their volunteers are making and will also acknowledge that without their volunteers they wouldn’t be able to do what they do. This Volunteer Week we are encouraging our Members to be part of this nationwide THANK YOU to volunteers everywhere.

AVA staff are willing to help any organisation to celebrate what their volunteers do. Some events have already been arranged in various locations across Aberdeenshire and we are encouraging our Members to get in touch if they have volunteers who might qualify for one of our Volunteering Awards –

• iVolunteer Awards are available for younger volunteers aged from 5 to 15 – simply get in touch with your local AVA team member for information
• Saltire Awards are available for volunteers aged between 12 and 25
• AVA Awards (AVAs) are available for adults and can be issued for volunteering for one year up to our Lifetime Award for over 20 years of volunteering
• Volunteer Friendly Award is a simple, user-friendly quality standard designed to support, recognise and reward groups and organisations that are good at involving volunteers.

All of the awards are free and information is available on our website here.

Saying thank you doesn’t have to be a grand affair, simply sitting your volunteers down and making them the centre of attention for an hour could be all it takes, even better if we can help with an award, but the important message is –

Please remember to say thank you this volunteer week!