You may notice that our April newsletter is a little different this time. Usually, we have a variety of stories that discuss what is happening throughout the mission’s many ministries. This month, however, we want to focus on one specific area – volunteering. Our volunteers help in literally every aspect of Union Mission’s work and we could not be the organization we are without them.

April 20th, 2022 is National Volunteer Recognition Day. In honor of that day, we want to recognize some of our volunteers who help on a regular basis at Union Mission. Each story not only illustrates what they do for the mission but why they do it. You will read how some volunteer individually, some come to work as a family, and others make up a large group from a church or civic organization. Some volunteer for special events at certain times of the year and some volunteer every week at the same time like clockwork.

I can’t stress enough how important our volunteers are to us as an organization. They help in so many ways it would be difficult to list them all. Just this winter, we had a full off-site staff retreat for 3 days. We were able to keep vital parts of the mission running while the staff was out due to  volunteers covering these key areas.

Did you know that volunteer hours equal donated dollars for Union Mission? It is a bit difficult to explain, but when it comes to reporting for our nonprofit status, hours worked by volunteers are converted to value in dollars. Professional services allow us to report even more dollars per hour. That is why it is so important for our volunteers to record all the time they spend working for Union Mission so we can accurately report their efforts.

If you would like to volunteer with Union Mission, now is the time! Call our volunteer coordinator, Joyce Davis, at 304.925.0366 and she can get you placed in the best area for you to serve. You can also complete your volunteer application online at our website, unionmission.com. Just click on the volunteer link at the top of the page. On behalf of everyone at Union Mission, I want to say thank you to all of our volunteers!