218 volunteers give 20,889 hours of service to the community

by Roger Mannon

Volunteers who donated thousands of service hours were honored at the 35th Annual Retired and Senior Volunteer Program Recognition Luncheon Monday at Floyd Baptist Church Fellowship Hall.
During the 12 months from July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010, 218 Floyd RSVP volunteers worked 20,889 volunteer service hours in the Floyd County community in a wide variety of service roles.
As determined by the Commonwealth of Virginia, this translates into a value of $417,780 given to the community in the form of in kind volunteer service.
Individual volunteers of the year were McCabe Coolidge and Karen Day, who also gave the keynote address of the day. The couple works with Plenty! - a food outreach - and have helped to establish a community garden.
Co-winners of the volunteer group of the year were Floyd United Methodist Church and Zion Lutheran Church.
The volunteer station of the year was the Jacksonville Center, which took in RSVP when roof damage forced them to leave their facility temporarily.
Volunteers may be part of RSVP at age 55. Also recognized during the awards ceremony were eight volunteers aged 90 or over.
Home schooled students and parents from Floyd and the New River Valley, a total of 27 people, helped set up and serve the meal and clean up after the event.
RSVP is a program of New River Community Action, Inc. (NRCA) and is federally funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service and local Floyd County government.
NRCA’s mission is to promote and support the well-being and self-reliance of individuals, families and communities. The purpose of RSVP is to help adults age 55 and above find volunteer opportunities that will support organizations with charitable causes and thereby help strengthen communities.
Additional pictures from the recognition luncheon will be published in next week’s Floyd Press.

Picture: McCabe Coolidge and Karen Day, RSVP Volunteers of the Year Photo by RSVP