In Toronto, there are hundreds of service agencies and community organizations willing to accept aid from volunteers. For young graduates and career-seeking individuals, this translates into countless hours of opportunity and experience.

Drawing from a bank of seniors, university students and new Canadians, Canadian Blood Services (CBS) looks to its volunteers to organize and assist at blood-donor clinic sites and recruit donors, as well as be donors themselves.

Paula Arscott, clinic recruitment co-ordinator for CBS, says volunteers also play an important role as ambassadors for the organization. "Volunteers provide an important link to the community by promoting clinics to their neighbours and providing a warm welcome to donors," she said. "It is the responsibility of the volunteers to work with the staff to provide a pleasant donation experience for the donors -- one that will make them want to return."

Incentives for the returning volunteer include experience, organizational skills and positions of leadership. On-going training for volunteers allows them to work closely with clinic staff and they are regarded as part of the team.

"But the greatest incentive," Arscott said, "is the knowledge that they are helping to save lives."

In fact, while many Canadians may volunteer to help themselves advance in the job market, there is no denying the impact volunteerism has on community.

The Greater Toronto Tenants' Association (GTTA) is testament to that: the not-for-profit organization relies on its community of volunteers to advance its cause of tenants' rights through organizing, education, lobbying, and advocacy, as well as to perpetuate a larger network of volunteers.

Pauline Hutchings was once an attendee at a meeting in her apartment building, looking for more information when faced with an above-guideline rental adjustment. Today, she has been a volunteer with the GTTA (rentersnews.net) for three years, putting in 10 to 12 hours per week, after she comes home from her full-time job.

"We (volunteers) start out wanting to save the world," Hutchings said, "and that just might be by doing something practical that will help out someone's existence."

Reliant solely on volunteers (even the president of the association is a volunteer), the GTTA knows the difference even one or two hours can make, turning tenants of a building into a community of volunteers willing to distribute flyers, chair meetings, and organize peaceful protests and information sessions.

"We may never be a big, well-financed organization," said GTTA president Paul York, "but we will continue to be volunteer activists."

Less than a year after I became a volunteer for World Youth Day, I now work full-time for the organization. I revel in the opportunity to put my education and skills behind a project I believe in and support.

The irony of my job isn't lost on me -- I co-ordinate and train volunteers for special events that will happen throughout the GTA during World Youth Day. And now that my role is reversed, I understand the director's insistence that a volunteer's time and skills be used wisely.

The benefits for both the organization and the individual far outweigh the poundage of envelopes I could have stuffed and sealed in an entire year.



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