Fair draws dozens of potential volunteers

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Campbellton is helping local organizations – and itself – in finding volunteers and following a recent volunteer fair, upcoming events and festivals could see a boost in the number of people willing to help out.

Nancy Belliveau-Poirier, of the city’s tourism department, said an event held Sunday to specifically attract volunteers was very successful.

“We had 15 different organizations on hand with more than 50 people coming out so we’re very happy with how it went,” she said. “There was a very nice cross-section of groups there looking for more volunteers and they all seemed happy as well.”

Belliveau-Poirier said some of those groups included sports organizations, local service clubs, a community radio station and volunteers from local fire brigades.

“We (the city) had our own booth for the festivals such as Salmon Festival and the Bluegrass Festival and we had some people sign up so hopefully other groups had people join as well. We’re planning on having this next year, keeping it to a couple of hours as well.”

The gathering kicked off Volunteer Week during which the city posted a daily survey to ask volunteers different questions on why and where they choose to donate their time.

Mayor Jean-Guy Levesque said communities depend on volunteers in order to grow.

“Volunteers are crucial for building a strong community,” he said. “Without their engagement, several vital services would be jeopardized. For instance, fire response, organized sports for our children, community festivals, Meals-on-Wheels and many more need volunteers to succeed.”

Stacy Doiron-Laviolette has been volunteering for numerous causes for decades.

“I have always enjoyed organizing events, even when I was a young teenager,” she said. “I get an extreme sense of satisfaction, a sense of accomplishment. Once an event starts to unfold and I see something that I put together or that I was a part of actually happening, it’s crazy how proud I feel”

She said without volunteers coming forward, communities would suffer.

“If no one steps up and volunteers, how does anything happen? If no one says I’ll give some of my time, how do any of these events take place? If we didn’t have volunteers willing to give their time and sacrifice a bit of their lives, people would miss out on making all these special memories and enjoying these moments.”