Skip to main content

Volunteer Appreciation Party Ideas

Each year we have a volunteer appreciation program to thank the residents who have served the community within the past year. I try to change it each time so that it is interesting to those who have attend year after year. I have created a slide show of all the volunteers doing their job, had the residents stand up at their table and say their name and their volunteer duty, and had many different themes for the event. I think that sharing the different volunteer areas is a good idea because some people in the room are looking around at the fellow guests and thinking to themselves, "What is she doing here? She doesn't volunteer!" Funny, and most likely true in your community also.

Since I am working on the details of this year's appreciation lunch, I thought that I'd share it with you and also share what other fun ideas we've done in the past. Hopefully the ideas will help you and that you will share your thoughts with us on this blog so that we can all learn from one another.

This year I'm doing "We're NUTS for our volunteers." We are giving them a coffee mug with our company's logo and the theme saying on it. It will contain an assortment of nuts wrapped inside. The food will have a nut theme also (with an option for the person who is allergic available.) Decorations are still being worked on. I think I found someone who will make me peanut shaped balloons.  The gifts will be set at each place setting so the tables will look nice.

In the past, I've done other neat themes. Here is a quick list, although the wording is probably not exact since I am trying to remember them....  "Volunteers are our good fortune" Decorations: Oriental. Food: Asian, Gift: Notebook with Asian theme. I created personalized fortune cookies for the "Good Fortune" theme. Here is the site that I used http://fancyfortunecookies.com/ ; "Spotlight on You" Decorations: Stars  Gift: Mini Flashlight; "Volunteers make our Community Blossom" Decorations: Flowers, Food: I jsut remember had an edible orchid on the plate,  Gift: Tote bag (I think).   We have also given back-packs, desk clocks, pen/pencil sets, paper cubes with a clip on pen, and night lights away as gifts in recent years.

You might want to read the National Volunteer's website for 2012 information. It is updated yearly.... so go ahead and click on the link each year.

Please see the other goodies that Amazon offers to make your volunteer appreciation event the best by going to my suggestions for volunteer parties.  FOOTNOTE: I finally made my decision for this year's gift. I ordered angel pins and will use "heavenly" as my theme! Here is the article with everything you will need for a successful Heavenly volunteer theme event.   UPDATE FOR 2013: I am doing a mint theme. Take a look at my Pinterest site and you will see some of the cool gift ideas for this theme.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 Styles of Scavenger Hunts

Boy is it hot outside! If you are like me you may still be looking for indoor activities that are fun for your residents to do. This activity that I will share with you can be done for different levels of care in your retirement community. I encourage you to share it with the other activity professionals that work in those other areas within your own community. The activity is the Scavenge Hunt. This can be done in three different ways and I will describe them below: 1)       The Stay Seated Scavenger Hunt v   Ask audience to bring in items they think will be asked for. Encourage them to fill their purses, pockets, bags, etc. and bring it to the event v   Make a list of items that they could bring with them v   Include items that would be funny, that might have a story to go with them, or that people would be surprised someone would actually have. (Green Stamps anyone?) v   See the list I used v   Cut the list into pieces and place them into a basket v   Ask
2 comments
Read more

Super Bowl Party for Seniors

It is almost here! The 46th Super Bowl game will be held on Sunday, February 5 in Indinapolis. Each year, residents in my retirement community want to have a viewing party for the big game. I believe that it is a fun program to make an activity out of, but not something that I must do every year. Mostly, I don't have this each year because there are not to many ways to change it up, so I don't want to have it become boring. (This is where your ideas would be great to hear!!) This year, we are going to have a party and I'd like to share with you the plans for the evening. Residents are now signing up for the program which is set to start at 6:00 p.m.  This time is perfect in my community because we still serve dinner at noon on Sundays and the residents usually like to attend for the food, if for no other reason. (I do charge them a fee for the food.) We will have the game showing on our big screen tv in the auditorium and tables and chairs set up for the residents to eat
2 comments
Read more

4 Pictures 1 Word Game for the Big Screen

Many of you who have played 4 Pictures 1 Word , know that this brain game is available as an app for your computer, tablet or phone for free. That is great, bu it does not allow a team to play and is not audience friendly if you wanted to present it at your retirement community (or other social gathering).  After some time and effort, I made a 4 Pictures and 1 Word game  slide show that you can use in your community. I did use the app for suggestions and the Internet for the pictures. I am glad to share this with you so that you will not have to spend the hours that I did in creating this game. If you get the urge to make one also, please come back to this blog page and share it.  I played this last week with a group of about 25 independent living residents.We did not get through all of the slides due to time constraints..... but I was glad I did not run out of slides in my hour that I had their attention. I will be playing this with them again... and would love to have other
Post a Comment
Read more