VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION EVENING

On Tuesday night, the Saginaw Rescue Mission held its annual volunteer appreciation event. The whole evening was great: chef-prepared dinner, gospel blue-grass concert, and the awards ceremony. It was rewarding to work with several other people to see the plans come together so well, but I'm glad I can put that file away for another year. We award volunteers for their number of cumulative hours, beginning with 100 and ending with 2000+ hours (equivalent to one year of full-time employment). This year, the mission staff nominated six volunteers for the volunteer of the year award. They were all worthy, but one had to be selected. I had the staff members vote, and they chose Gary Warner, author of Lighting the Way Home, a book written last year in honor of the mission's 100 years of ministry in Saginaw. All the nominees (except Gary because he also writes our newsletter) were featured in the recent Vision newsletter, but they didn't know that was the reason they were featured until we announced them Tuesday night. ; ) All volunteers present were given a signed copy of Gary's book as a thank you gift for their vital role in the operation of the mission.