The Editor:
National Volunteer Week is a week-long celebration where Canadians pause to applaud hard-working volunteers in their communities who support many worthwhile causes.
This year, National Volunteer Week will be celebrated from April 15-21. It provides an opportunity to recognize and honour the individuals who donate their time, energy and skills to their community because they have a sincere desire to make a difference.
Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) is incredibly fortunate to count 6,600 dedicated people as our volunteers. This number has grown substantially since the first handful of volunteers established DUC almost 75 years ago to save dwindling wetlands on the drought-stricken Canadian Prairies. Since then, we've built a strong community of people with varying interests, united in a common purpose of conserving wetlands for waterfowl, other wildlife, the environment and people.
DUC salutes our volunteers for their dedication to wetland conservation and for inspiring other Canadians to help conserve wetland habitat across this great country. By conserving wetlands, they are helping provide essential habitat for thousands of species of plants and animals. These wetlands also help filter our water, store harmful greenhouse gasses and moderate the effects of flood, drought and erosion. What's shocking is, despite their many benefits, Canada loses 80 acres of wetlands every day. This is the equivalent of about 45 soccer fields every 24 hours.
Today, our volunteers help us fundraise by organizing community banquets, special events and auctions. They also help teach our youth about the many values of wetlands. Our volunteers spread the word about the need for wetland conservation by encouraging their colleagues to give through our workplace fundraising program, and help cultivate major gift donations from local businesses and organizations. Additionally, they help us to advance government policies that help conserve wetlands. Volunteers are truly great DUC ambassadors.
To honour our volunteers during National Volunteer Week, we have created a volunteer appreciation video especially for them. To view the video - titled Our Habitat Heroes: DUC's Volunteers - visit www.ducks.ca.
DUC is always looking for more volunteers to join our team. To find out more, visit ducks.ca/volunteer.
Yours in conservation,
Tom Worden, President
Ducks Unlimited Canada
