National Volunteer Week - a legacy of commitment and care

CAMH appreciates its dedicated volunteers all year round

“Volunteers scurried about the hospital halls, brimming with excitement and energy as they helped put the final touches on an event they had been planning for months.

An event for the patients; an evening of fun and entertainment and an opportunity for them to engage with each other, the staff and the volunteers. Patients were invited to sit, relax and enjoy the show, while volunteers kept busy serving an array of refreshments and tasty treats. This wonderful event, planned by the community volunteers, was meant to provide a diversion from the clinical environment and help the patients get their mind off things.”

This sounds like any one of the events CAMH volunteers help organize regularly. The only difference is this event took place in 1892, over 116 years ago, at the Queen Street site or what was then called the Asylum for the Insane.

Ticket to a concert for Asylum patients on February 2, 1892, donated to the CAMH Archives by Mrs. Shirley Scott.

Later that year, Superintendent Daniel Clark’s annual report included a note of gratitude concerning this and the 22 other concerts volunteers had made possible. He recognized “that our city friends are many, and as energetic as ever in their efforts to give pleasure to our patients in so many ways. A mere statement of thanks is inadequate to express what all feel at these evidences of self-sacrifice, which are freely rendered without any remuneration beyond the feeling of satisfaction at doing a good and charitable work among the most severely afflicted of our fellow beings.”

Daniel Clark’s message still resonates today.

The legacy of care and commitment by CAMH volunteers is a long and storied one. For over 100 years, volunteers with their helping hearts, abounding compassion, empathy and understanding, have been able to help improve the quality of life and care for our clients. Let’s take a moment to acknowledge and thank those unsung heroes that walk amongst us everyday during this year’s National Volunteer Week and CAMH’S 10th anniversary.

Volunteers contributed nearly 176,000 hours in 2006-07 to CAMH in a wide variety of areas. In this photo, CAMH fetes its volunteers at its annual Volunteer Recognition Dinner.

Those volunteers who inspire clients and patients whether they are using the power of shared experience in the Getting Started program, assisting in research that may one day change clients’ lives, or facilitating art or yoga program that make our clients’ stay at the hospital a little more enjoyable. These volunteers are the foundation that creates and sustains healthy communities.

So thank you to our neighbours, friends, families and colleagues who understand the importance of volunteering and caring for each other.

Happy National Volunteer Week to all of our volunteers at CAMH. We appreciate you!

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