Last week was National Volunteer Week and the City of Greater Bendigo held its annual National Volunteer Week Morning Tea to recognise the City’s volunteers.

The morning tea had a wonderful turnout from a variety of people who volunteer for the City, including Youth Councillors Levity Camilleri, Moon Vincent, Amelia Westbrook, and Youth Mayor Lilly Correll. Mayor Cr Andrea Metcalf and Youth Mayor Lilly Correll gave fantastic speeches to start the morning tea and then there was time to mingle with the other volunteers in attendance.

The theme for National Volunteer Week this year is “Something for everyone”. This reflects the experience of the volunteer groups we have here at YO Bendigo. Our Youth Council, the YO Events team and the YO Media team all have a different experience with volunteering despite all being within the age range of 12 to 25. There is truly something for everyone at YO Bendigo.

Youth Mayor Lilly Correll said during her speech “I believe we volunteer because we care. We care about our city. We care about our society.  We care about our community.” And then said “Greater Bendigo’s volunteers are the backbone of our community. Without volunteering, there would be no community, just a society, or even worse, just an economy.”

Youth Mayor Lilly Correll’s powerful words highlighted the importance of volunteering. YO Bendigo is proud to be offering these volunteering opportunities to the young people of Greater Bendigo and proud of what they do with the opportunities once they have them.

YO Bendigo would like to thank all our amazing young people who come in every week and participate in a variety of meetings, events and activities. We are immensely proud of these young people.