Youth Volunteer Week 2024
Congratulations to all of the award winners from this year’s Youth Volunteer Week!
Youth Volunteer Week (May 20th - 26th) celebrates young people who are striving to make a change through volunteering, and encourages others to give volunteering a try. This year, we held a competition for all our SVA Service Award students to volunteer as many hours as possible during the week.
Collectively, volunteers logged over 9,000 hours during Youth Volunteer Week. The top three contributing schools were Epsom Girls’ Grammar; Kingsway School; and Rangitoto College.
In August, SVA Head of Collaboration Georgia Gumbrell was thrilled to visit the winning schools to present the Youth Volunteer Week awards.
Students at Epsom Girls explained how Student Council collaborated with SVA Service Award students to promote the competition within their school and arrange a toy-making session for SPCA.
“We had lots of student volunteers who just do it without realising it’s volunteering… lots of people who do the work but don’t get the recognition they deserve.”
One student spent the week participating at a fundraiser for the local children’s hospital where her cousin worked, volunteering her after school time to sell souvenirs and baking to raise valuable funds.
Another said her favourite thing about volunteering was: “Being able to lend my resources, times and skills to something else that matters and people that need it. I don’t need anything in return, it’s just nice to help out.”
At Rangitoto College, the DP expressed how important volunteering was for fostering a sense of belonging for everyone in the school, regardless of sporting or music talents.
“It's an opportunity for students that transcends ethnicity, faith, cultural background, sporting ability, talent in music. It’s something that we find is an opportunity for everyone. The growth in the [service] space has been awesome for the school and for the kids.”
