Volunteers Equal Contributions - In More Ways Than One

     Volunteers provide valuable service to our schools - homeroom moms, cafeteria cooks, PTG officers, and electrical and technical experts, and many schools have volunteer recognition programs, such as dinners and special services during Catholic Schools Week.  The Diocese of Greensburg's Office for Catholic Schools take a little different approach by presenting a CHEERS award (an acronym for Catholic Honors for Educational Excellence and Recognition of Service) to nominated individuals.  A certificate is prepared, and members from the Diocesan office visit the school and surprise the volunteer in the act of offering service, akin to the style of a "Publishers Clearing House Prize Patrol" award.

     But volunteers can also bring monetary contributions to your school.  Your volunteers may work for, or be retired from, a corporation which rewards its employees for community service.  Employees and/or retirees log the amount of time they volunteer and then submit it to their corporation's Human Resources office, which then awards a contribution to the school based on the amount of hours served by the employee or retiree.

     At your next parents' meeting, be sure to ask if there are folks that work for companies that participate in such a practice.  If they don't know, ask them to ask their human resources department about it.  It may give someone a reason to give a little more of their time and talent so that someone else can match it with some treasure.

© Michael V. Ziemski, SchoolAdvancement, 2008 (Original Publication Date: 20080428)

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