This month’s gratification post is for our entire Volunteer Community! Each month we thank an individual, business and/or organization who supports our efforts but this month we would like to extend an extra thank you to all our amazing volunteers! We could not achieve our holiday themed events, execute our fundraisers, or run the programs we offer to our after-school members without you! As a thank you we provide a small gift to all our volunteers during the Holiday season. This year, we gave each volunteer a mug with the MYC logo on it and in each bag was a card, made by the MYC Youth Council members!
From September 2024 to present, we have had the help of over 105 volunteers. With over 278 hours, the Milford Youth Center has been able to successfully accomplish some of the following: host a fundraiser with 50 raffle items, accomplish our second annual golf fundraiser, provide a Thanksgiving meal that fed over 125 children, conduct a Holiday Gift collection that helped over 150 children and their families, run countless after school programs including Steam, fitness and nutrition programs, sewing, fishing, gardening, arts and crafts, and many more. Finally, we have also been able to provide multiple food access programs for our members and community!
The Milford Youth Center would not have the opportunity to do all these things without the help of our volunteers. To put it into perspective, the hours volunteered are equivalent to approximately $9,310.22 in staffing expenses! This estimated value was calculated by the Independent Sector and their current estimated national value of each volunteer hour. Generosity, trust, companionship, learning, friendships, are all things that are earned not by the dollar but by the lives that our volunteers touch daily here at the Youth Center. We welcome you; we appreciate you, and we encourage you to continue to make a difference in the lives of children, but also in the lives of the Youth Center staff. Without you, we would not be able to achieve all the things we have and plan to do in the future. We appreciate you!