The SHAPE/Chièvres community thanked its volunteers during a volunteer-recognition ceremony in the SHAPE Club ballroom April 17.
USAG Benelux registered volunteers put in almost 18,000 hours, worth more than $400,000 using Department of Labor and Statistics calculations, said Craig Larsen, the head of the Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation.
"We have hundreds of volunteers," Larsen said. "The true benefit is the individuals and what they give to the community."
Wallace "Spider" Turner, the Benelux Army Volunteer Corps coordinator, talked about their motivation. "They volunteer from the heart," Turner said. "Our way of saying 'thank you' is the volunteer-recognition ceremony."
Award-winners were:
•Volunteer Service Member of the Year Chief Petty Officer Harry Hughes;
•Volunteer Retiree of the Year Gregory Perkins;
•Volunteer Civilian of the Year Brandy Allard;
•Volunteer Family Member of the Year Kipperey "Kippe" Carlson; and
•Volunteer Youth of the Year Skye Capazzi.
"The typical volunteer doesn't do it for the recognition," Larsen said. "A volunteer sees a need and wants to get involved."
Volunteers also have in-dividual motivations for volunteering.
"I've always wanted a career that involved working with children. Since that hasn't worked out for me yet, I decided to dedicate my spare time to a volunteer opportunity that would allow me to work with them," said Allard, who is an office manager for the Special Advisor for Special Handling on SHAPE. "I chose to volunteer for the Girl Scouts because I wanted to make a difference in their lives by teaching them the values of the program." Capazzi, 13, is a Girl Scout.
"Volunteering is fun," she said. "You get to spend time with people you don't know and make new friends. It gives you something to do."
Among her volunteer efforts, Capazzi brought gifts to the children of Le Kangourou, a battered-women's shelter in Baudour, Belgium.
"The smiles and looks on their faces just warmed my heart," she said. "We watched them play with their new toys, and they were the happiest kids I'd ever seen."
Volunteers are encouraged to register in the Volunteer Management Information System, or VMIS, which tracks volunteer hours.
VMIS does more than track your volunteer hours, said Perkins, who volunteers as a program-manager assistant for the Employment Readiness Program at SHAPE Army Community Service. VMIS lists available volunteer opportunities and more.
"Volunteering can lead to potential employment op-portunities," Perkins said.
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