Governor’s Office on Service and Volunteerism and the Baltimore Orioles Celebrate Maryland Volunteers with Volunteer Appreciation Night at Camden Yards
Annapolis, MD –The Governor’s Office on Service and Volunteerism, in partnership with the Baltimore Orioles, yesterday celebrated Maryland volunteers by hosting Volunteer Appreciation Night at Camden Yards. Over 35 Maryland volunteer organizations were provided free tickets to attend yesterday evening’s baseball game. In total, 1000 tickets were distributed.
“Volunteer Appreciation Night acknowledges the efforts of Maryland volunteers to make a difference in our communities and provides opportunities for comradery and new partnerships within the volunteer community,” said Van Brooks, Director of the Governor’s Office on Service and Volunteerism. “Relationships developed at events like these often lead to new and innovative ideas on how to best address issues important to Marylanders, and we are excited to engage in continuing dialogue with the volunteer community as new partnerships and initiatives are introduced.”
Tickets provided to volunteer organizations through this initiative were distributed to each organization’s respective volunteers. Select organizations, such as the WeCancerve Movement, also provided a portion of their tickets to the clients they serve, in an effort to further develop relationships between the organization’s volunteers and clients. The WeCancerve Movement, started in 2011 by Grace Callwood, a youth survivor of stage IV Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, is dedicated to finding swift solutions for homeless, sick, and foster children. This Movement invited both volunteers and children served by the program to attend the event.
This year’s Volunteer Appreciation Night was announced in late March and marks the 3rd year of the initiative, created through a partnership between the Governor’s Office on Service and Volunteerism and the Orioles Charitable Foundation. Tickets for volunteers were distributed to volunteer organizations through six volunteer centers around Maryland.