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In conjunction with National Volunteer Week, May 1 and 2 were set aside as special days at The Salvation Army Community Resource Centre in Miramichi to honour volunteers. Sixty-seven volunteers attended the Thursday evening celebration and 35 Kettle Volunteers attended the Friday brunch.

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Contributed photos

The Friendship Supper group from St. James and St. John and Maple Glen United Churches.

Kettle Coordinators Laurie Baldwin (left) and Bill Kern of Chatham.

Majors Clarence and Karen Ingram cut the Thank You Volunteers cake.

Majors Clarence and Karen Ingram from Divisional Headquarters were present to bring greetings and present awards to approximately 28 volunteers that work in the Thrift Store, 10 teams from local churches which assist with the Friendship Supper program (meals served twice weekly) and 111 volunteers registered specifically for the Christmas and Winter Relief Kettle Campaign.

Details of the outcome of the work the volunteers performed were announced. Kettle volunteers raised $27,319.29 during the month of December. "That was down from the previous year," said Debbie Churchill, Social Service Coordinator. "We attribute that to the mill closures and less people carrying cash."

Friendship supper volunteers prepared 96 meals and served 384 people. The Family Service office has 260 families who have registered for various services and programs offered. A small oil fund was established this winter, which assisted 15 families, and 313 food and clothing vouchers were issued in the past 12 months. One hundred seventy nine (179) families were registered for Christmas, and given food and gifts.

"All funds raised here, stay here and are used here," said Churchill. "Even the revenue raised in our Thrift Store is kept here and is one of the main ways we are able to fund the social service division of the unit."

She added that volunteers go unpaid not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless.

"The strength of any community is their volunteer base, and we feel honored to have some of the very best working and giving at The Salvation Army," she said.