Volunteer Recognition 2013 Recap

Last month, on December 3rd, 2013, Met Council's Volunteer Department had the opportunity to celebrate and show our appreciation for all our volunteers. You can check out photos on our Facebook and be sure to tag yourself if you were there! Here is a recap and listing of all our award recipients:

Most Dedicated Award- Andrew Schaeffer and Mary Bays

 

Leadership Award- Geoff Cutler and Jodi Smith

 

Most Creative Award- Stacy Cohen, Trevor Smith, and Kevin Wilson

 

Sandy Recovery Award- Madelyn Freundlich and OREY

40 for 40 Participation Awards

 
Marvin Cohen Volunteer of the Year Award- Emma Golod and Raisa Titayevkaya z"l 

We also gave out Presidential Awards to the following volunteers: 
Gold- Those who have volunteered 250 or more hours in the past year.
Scott Aronin, Gang Chen, Jiani Wu, Xiaojing Guo 

Silver-Those who have volunteered between 175 and 249 hours in the past year.
Bryan Schonfeld, Sarah Roden, Harold Markowitz 
Bronze- Those who have volunteered between 100 and 174 hours in the past year.
Saul Ackerman, Emily Bader, Josh Barsky

 Thank you and congratulations to all our award recipients! We look forward to another year of exemplary volunteers and hope to see more of you at the 9th annual 2014 Volunteer Recognition Event!

January 2014- Volunteer of the Month- Yael Segal!

Congratulations to Yael Segal, our January 2014 Volunteer of the Month!

 Yael is a full time mom who is also a personal trainer and registered nurse originally from Israel. She came by Met Council’s volunteer opportunities from word from a friend when looking for a way to give back to her community. Each week, Yael travels from Long Island to lead a chair exercise workshop for seniors at our low-income housing site in Brooklyn. She enjoys sharing her enthusiasm and developing relationships with the dedicated clients who attend the workshop each week. After a few short weeks of leading, she also generously donated a new DVD of chair exercises for our collection.

In the new year, Yael will also become a volunteer for our Helpful Hands Program to assist clients in various tasks as they continue to rebuild a year after Sandy. In years past, Yael has spent time volunteering to aid children in Peru which inspired her to continue when she moved to New York 8 years ago. Her commitment to serve and give back to the community is outstanding. For this, we are nominating Yael our Volunteer of the Month for January 2014.

Serve on MLK Day- January 20th, 2014

To commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, each year thousands of volunteers donate their day off from school or work to serve their community. If you are interested in taking action on your time off this year, join Met Council in organizing and repainting the community room, garbage rooms, and kitchen at Met Council’s Spitzer Residence. If you are interested in making a positive impact on a seniors life by re-painting one of Met Council’s low-income senior residences than this is the volunteer opportunity for you! 

By repainting the community room, we will create a welcoming environment and the seniors will use the space more often to visit with other residents in the building.

Clients are low-income senior residents that live in Met Council-owned and operated housing sites.  The intent of our senior housing program is to integrate low-income housing into the very area in which it would not ordinarily be economically viable. This project will help in create a more enjoyable environment for our seniors. 

YOU MUST REGISTER TO ATTEND. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Volunteer description: 

Age:  16 years and older

Group or Individual: Groups and individuals welcome

Min and Max # of Volunteers: up to 25 volunteers

Cost: $10 towards the cost of goods such as paint, brushes, tape, and more

Time: 10am to 1pm

Location: Upper East side of Manhattan

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

Contact Information: Volunteer Department and/or Volunteer Coordinator

volunteer@metcouncil.org, (212) 453-9508

Volunteer Vacations on NPR

Volunteering is a great way to give back around the holidays, but those of us who take our two weeks' paid vacation around this time often don't get the chance. Because of this, more and more people are taking their vacations and turning them into opportunities for service.

Just yesterday, NPR's Weekend Edition sat down with Shannon O'Donnell, the founder of the website GrassrootsVolunteering.org. This website acts as a resource for those who wish to travel ethically throughout the world, whether by volunteering for local organizations or by supporting small businesses. In this interview, O'Donnell points out some common mistakes that people make when looking to make a difference in communities they are visiting. You can read the transcript or listen to the interview by following the link above.

Met Council offers many volunteer opportunities for groups and individuals of all ages. If you are looking to plan a volunteering vacation in New York City, get involved with us! Met Council is one of New York's largest social services agencies, serving over 100,000 people each year.

December 2013 Volunteer of the Month - Ginghamsburg Church Youth Ministry

Congratulations to Ginghamsburg Church Youth Ministry, our Volunteer of the Month for December 2013!

This group of enthusiastic teens from Tipp City, Ohio brought their energy to several of our projects earlier this month during an annual service trip to NYC. They travel regularly to several locations every year to participate in community service projects in the U.S. and abroad.

The teens split into smaller groups between several activities on Thursday, December 5th: canvassing in the Bronx to inform people about public benefits; canvassing in the Rockaways with information about disaster case management; and joining seniors at our residence in Sea Gate, Brooklyn to celebrate Hanukkah with coffee, jelly doughnuts, dreidels, and conversation. All told, they disseminated nearly a thousand fliers and entertained over a dozen clients at our residence for low-income seniors. Each of these communities was impacted by the group's invaluable help.

Thank you all once again for your help and great work!