This week, April 27 - May 3, is National Volunteer Appreciation Week. Did you know that there are an estimated 83.9 million people that volunteer an equivalent of 9 million full-time employees at a value of $239 million?

That certainly makes a lot of volunteers! How will you be thanking and rewarding your volunteers this year?

I found a great website with some original ideas you can use to thank, reward and make volunteers feel special. There are ideas you can use all year round, and ideas for certain times of the year, and they really don’t cost much. By continuously going the extra mile for your volunteers, they will keep coming back and helping you out. Here are some of my favorite ideas:

Check out more great ideas, poems, quotes, and recognition boosters on the Illinois 4 H News & Event Website.

For those of you looking for volunteers, or for a place to volunteer, check out VolunteerMatch.com. You can search for volunteers by zip code and areas of interest.

Happy National Volunteer Appreciation Week :-)