A Letter to Our Volunteers

Happy National Volunteer Week! I want to express my deep appreciation for the incredible perseverance and dedication of all ACTS’ volunteers, past and present.  I have seen youth volunteers spend two hours with their friends and family sorting donated items, and I have met volunteers who have spent ten years of their lives preparing food bags in our pantry.  Just this week, Comcast Cares Day brought hundreds out to Dumfries on (a very rainy) Earth Day to work making ACTS’ buildings look better and work better so we can serve the community better. A little rain could never slow down an ACTS volunteer!!  If you have spent any amount if time in your life giving back to our community through ACTS, I want to thank you.  As the Volunteer Coordinator, I am in the enviable position of meeting people as they first come to ACTS and think about what type of volunteer opportunity they would enjoy and how they can make a difference in the lives of their neighbors. 

At the time of this writing, ACTS is gearing up for what is sure to be a wonderful evening spent with good people and great food. Our annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner will be held on May 4th to honor the service of some of our most loyal workers at ACTS; our volunteers. While one evening is never enough to truly thank the people from every department at ACTS who have volunteered their time and talents for years, we always make a grand effort to show them how much we care about their service, and this year is no exception. This year will mark the biggest appreciation dinner we have ever had at ACTS, and like our organization itself, this annual event has evolved greatly over the past 23 years we’ve been celebrating it.

And it’s for a great reason. Our volunteers save us time, resources, and expenses in an enormous way. Last year, our volunteers worked nearly 30,000 hours helping feed, clothe, educate, and listen to families and individuals in crisis.  According to the United States Department of Labor, this amounts to (at minimum) over $217,500! It’s fitting that the theme our committee picked was “Superheroes.” Our volunteers are our superheroes and an inspiration to us all!

If you are an ACTS volunteer, we take our hats off to you for always having a smile and a kind word to those you are helping, for being the first here in the morning and locking the door with us at night. The time you spend with us enriches us all. We are incredibly lucky to work every day alongside people who bring their passion and expertise to this community.  If you would like to volunteer with us, our door is always open, and you could not pick a kinder, more devoted group of people to serve alongside.  Please contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information or fill out an application online.

-Jane Anderson, Volunteer Coordinator, ACTS

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