Looking for an activity that will benefit your members, the community and the environment?

Tourism Vancouver has compiled list of volunteer opportunities for convention groups to consider. Here are just a few suggestions and we hope to continue to add to this list. Please contact your convention services team if you wish to explore other opportunities in our community. We can help make it happen.

1. Volunteer Event at the Greater Vancouver Food Bank

The Greater Vancouver Food bank is only 15 minutes from the downtown core and they welcome volunteers to their distribution depot to help sort the many thousands of pounds of food that they receive. Past volunteer groups have advised how much they enjoyed the opportunity to work together as a team and give back to this worthwhile cause. The Food bank is receptive to groups of 10 to 50 for volunteer opportunities for 3 or 4 hours shifts and their warehouse is located 10 minutes for the Vancouver Convention Centre. The Food Bank provides instruction and an outline of how their operation manages to feed over 25,000 people each week.

The Greater Vancouver Food Bank
1150 Raymur Avenue
Vancouver, BC
V6A 3T2
604-876-3601
foodbank@foodbank.bc.ca

Group Volunteer Contact:

Director of Community Investment
Doug Aason
604-876-0659 ext 109
douga@foodbank.bc.ca

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2. Volunteer with Evergreen Mission - Can you dig it?

Evergreen's corporate planting and stewardship events are a great way to make a difference! A specialized planting event for your employees is a unique way to build leadership, acquaint diverse teams and benefit the community.

Evergreen has created a special opportunity for corporate groups to help enhance local green space by planting trees, shrubs and wildflowers in public spaces at personalized planting and stewardship events. You show up and we'll provide

• Event management and coordination
• Plant material (trees, shrubs and wildflowers best-suited to the site)
• Tools, gloves and equipment

Training and site interpretation
Shaugn Schwartz
Regional Director, British Columbia & Alberta
604-689-0766 ext. 25
sschwartz@evergreen.ca

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3. Plant a Tree in Richmond with the Richmond Tree Project

The Richmond Fruit Tree Sharing Project connects volunteers with growing and harvesting fruit and vegetables - for our neighbours in need. We encourage the corporate community to bring their work teams for a fun, hands-on, relatively dirt-filled day. Groups of up to 15 or 30 people (depending on the season) are welcome at a single time. Transfer time from Vancouver to Richmond would be 40 minutes each way.

Contact Information
Richmond Fruit Tree Sharing Project
c/o #7 - 13400 Princess Street
Richmond, BC V7E 6R5
info@richmondfruittree.com

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4. Northwest Wildlife Preservation Society

Preservation through Education Northwest Wildlife Preservation Society (NWPS) introduces people of all ages to the wonders of the natural world to inspire environmental stewardship. Our mission is to encourage respect for and preservation of wildlife and wildlife spaces. Our programs include Wildlife in the Schools, Nature Walks & Workshops, and Habitat Stewardship Projects. NWPS is a non-profit registered charity actively involved in providing environmental education to British Columbians since 1987.

Northwest Wildlife Preservation Society (NWPS)

# 203-5066 Kingsway,
Burnaby, BC, V5H 2E7
(604) 568-9160 fax: (604) 568-6152
edcomm@northwestwildlife.com

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5. Save Stanley Park - Ivy Buster Volunteer Program in Stanley Park
offered by the Stanley Park Ecology Society and the Vancouver Park Board

Ivy Busters began in May 2004 as a stewardship project between the Stanley Park Ecology Society (SPES) and the Vancouver Park Board. The purpose of the Ivy busters Program is to provide opportunities for the Vancouver community to participate in a fun, rewarding stewardship initiative that contributes to the restoration of Stanley Park's forests. To date, we've had 39 Ivy Pulls with a total of 769 volunteers working 2337 volunteer hours, removing a grand total of 20,285 square metres of ivy!

In May 2008 we launched our "Adopt an Acre' Program, where small businesses and corporations seeking social responsibility and sustainability (such as Capers Community Markets) will adopt a specific area in need of removal and restoration within Stanley Park. At the current rate of grown and removal, it will take at least 50 years to rid the park of this nasty invasive plant. There is hope however, with concerned volunteers willing to fight for the natural diversity of such a unique urban forest, we can make a difference and stop this disaster before it happens.

To volunteer contact the volunteer coordinator phone 604-681-7099 or email vols@stanleyparkecology.ca

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6. Give a bike to a Needy Child

Buy a bike or a baby carriage kit. Put it together and give it to a needy child or family. A great teambuilding activity and a friendly competition between two or three teams of delegates.

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7. Work with one of our outstanding teambuliding companies in Vancouver and create a customized Corporate Social Responsibility event

A unique volunteer program can be designed with the strenghts of your organization in mind. Consider donating the registration fees for a fun creative Vancouver Scavenger Hunt or Race type of event to your favorite charity or local Food Bank. What expertise do your delegates bring to the table that can leave a positive legacy here in Vancouver? Donate and provide dental work, cosmetic surgery for a child in need, donate a wheelchair, encourage your delegates to rise to the challenge and sign up to be organ donors. Have teams compete to assemble a bicycle from a kit and donate the bicyclies to charity or a silent auction with the proceeds of the silent auction going to a charity. Donate used cell phones, or clothing to women in need.

Pick a charity, volunteer and give as an association or group.

Your convention services team at Tourism Vancouver can help you find the perfect opportunity to volunteer and give back.

Please, share your giving story with Tourism Vancouver. We want to tell everyone about your good deeds.

Email us at dreynolds@tourismvancouver.com if you need assistance finding an opportunity to volunteer.

Listing of these charities does not constitute endorsement by Tourism Vancouver. Information is provided as a service to meeting professionals who have selected Vancouver as the Host City for their conferences and conventions.