Here at Champaign County Nursing Home, our volunteers are a requirement in order to make our home better for our residents.

We have college affiliated students who come here because they are taking a class that requires their involvement with elders. Those volunteers are generally here for only one semester.

We have more college students who have found me on cuvolunteer.org as they are looking for volunteer opportunities.

Then, I have the local folks who come to us simply because they want to be a good neighbor.

All volunteers are welcome and we use all of them here. For our 2009 calendar year, volunteers donated more than 10,600 hours. That translates into 4.2 employees that we did not have to hire.

How can I thank all of them? I sincerely verbalize my thanks on a regular basis. Volunteer Week? My volunteers have not been inclined to need the recognition that comes with that event.

I send a thank you email a couple of times each semester. My volunteers seem to appreciate that.

Jim, I really appreciate you sharing your experience. Do you find the need for recognition being different for different age groups...college students vs. boomers vs. older retirees?

I have never been able to determine exactly what is necessary to keep volunteers excited about what they do. I have had situations when I thought that an individual would do many good things, only to have them get disillusioned about what we do at the nursing home.
On the other hand, I have had doubts about others who have become valuable people to have here.
What rewards they are seeking? What makes them come back (or not)? Do they need a pat on the back on a regular basis? I cannot answer an of those questions with a good, consistant reply.
I go with the flow. Sometimes it is more difficult than others. I am working on getting some international students to come here; English is second language to all of them. Big hurdles there, but I will stick with it. In the end, I believe that they will feel rewarded by knowing that they have improved their new language skills while making the quality-of-life better for our community's elders.
Learn, then teach.

What a good rule of thumb...every time I try to simplify or make blanket assumptions (especially as it relates to groups of people like generations) there are always exceptions which your response points out. thanks!