To celebrate Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House, we’re sharing stories from our program participants, staff, and volunteers about what makes our House so special.
Here, former co-chair of our Community Board, Chris Thorne, celebrates the dedicated House staff and volunteers that serve our community.
Listen to Chris’ story here or read below.
I’ve been blessed to be a part of the Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House Community Board. The really beautiful thing is that it has really allowed us to come up with creative ideas.
But these are usually just the beginning pieces of an imagination.
It’s really the staff that has brought everything together—they do a lot of the hard lifting. They’re really out there and bring people out of the community into the House.
And of course the volunteers as well! The House is so blessed to have so many different volunteers come in and out.
There are some volunteers that are still here, they’ve been doing it for years and years and years. Others come in and out, they’re here for different reasons and add such warmth to the house!
One of my favourite things to take part in as host and emcee was the Volunteer Appreciation Dinner. We would do that once a year and bring all the volunteers in.
Really, a lot of what makes the House run is the volunteers out in the community. So many of them have such personal relationships with the staff here, and with other community members as well.
You can really see the energy of the community. To me, it really is the staff and volunteers that bring all the pieces together.
It’s interesting because a lot of the volunteers use the services as well too, so they see what they’ve actually gotten out of it. It’s so nice to see them give back.
That’s when the full circle of volunteering and community comes into play—when somebody is utilizing a service and being able to come in and meet other people that are in a program, and all of a sudden, a year later, they’re volunteering for it!
That’s when you really get community engagement. I think that’s fantastic, and I do think that our House does a great job with that.
Do you have a story about what your Neighbourhood House means to you? Share it on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram using the hashtag #myNHstory!