Kelowna No. 2 in the country for hours given by volunteers

Kelowna residents have logged the second highest number of volunteer hours in Canada so far this year.

On Feb. 1, Mayor Colin Basran challenged Kelowna residents to collectively give 150,000 hours of volunteer service in honour of Canada’s 150th birthday.

As of Nov. 1, Kelowna volunteers had logged 135,059 hours on volinspire.com.

“It is really important to continue to inspire a culture of volunteerism in our community,” said Stephanie Moore, project co-ordinator for Kelowna Community Resources. “We all have something that we can contribute to make our community a great place to live, work and play.”

The Canada 150 for 150 Volunteer Challenge is a nationwide initiative led by Volunteer Ottawa.

Initially, the goal was to encourage Canadians to give 150 hours of volunteer time in 2017.

In the official challenge so far, Kelowna is in second place, behind Ottawa.

“Fortunately for us, Volinspire is a local company, and they have made it possible for local non-profits to log volunteer hours for those individuals not online,” said Moore. The challenge continues until the end of the year. Anyone looking for volunteer opportunities or wanting to log volunteer hours for 2017 can go online to volinspire.com or call Kelowna Community Resources at 250-763-8008.