When the recent federal election was called, Volunteer Canada invited candidates across the country to imagine their election campaigns with no volunteers - no one to make phone calls, no one to knock on doors, no one to work on election day.¹ I was approached by my local candidate's cam-paign office to volunteer on election day and was told that it needed 600 volunteers for that one day alone.

Imagine Canada reports that 11.8 million Canadians give two billion hours of volunteer time each year, the equivalent of two million full-time jobs. In 2004, Statistics Canada estimated that the total value of volunteer work in the not-for-profit sector in Canada amounted to a staggering $14 billion, or 1.4 percent of the gross domestic product.²

Volunteers commit valuable time, energy, knowledge and resources to their communities right across Canada. Where would we be without them? Hospitals, minor sports, libraries, museums, art galler-ies, community health care, religious organizations, volunteer fire-fighters, people who track endan-gered species, disaster relief, community centers, education, checking on waterways, visiting prisons, fundraising are just a few areas that rely heavily on volunteers.

There are, also, those who design their own volunteer projects, for example, checking in on neighbours, flooding a small community ice rink, tending a local green space, raising money from car washes and bake sales, taking a bag to collect trash when walking in the local park or ravine.

How would Canada fare without the invaluable services and commitment of volunteers? Unfortu-nately there are never enough. Eleven percent of Canadians contribute 77 percent of the volunteer hours. The 11 percent are made up primarily of older adults - the 65 plus age group.²

Volunteer Canada reports that people are becoming more discerning in how they spend their volun-teer hours. They are looking for opportunities for personal growth and want to invest their time in in-novative and challenging experiences. They are looking for more short-term and episodic volunteer opportunities with explicit outcomes and described benefits, as opposed to their predecessors who were more likely to commit long-term to one organization performing specific tasks².

Have you thought about your New Year's resolutions? How about adding volunteering to the list? Look around - there are many opportunities to get involved in short-term projects in an area of your choosing.Think about the number of hours you're willing to give and for how long you want to commit.

Your local volunteer bureau would be happy to assist or just call an organization and ask to speak with the volunteer coordinator, or get together with a few friends or neighbours and develop your own volunteer project.

At CPC volunteers are always welcome. You could become a Board member or help prepare View-point for mailing every three months or write an article for Viewpoint or write letters to politicians on suggested topics, serve on a committee of one's own interest or be a resource person to a committee or the Board, or maybe give suggestions to the Executive on how you can help.

A big thank you to all volunteers, your contribution in our country and other places in the world help to keep us connected as a caring society.

As this is the time of year for celebrations, I wish you good health, happiness and some good news in the year to come.

¹ Volunteer Canada. http//:volunteer.ca
² 2004 Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating. Catalogue no. 71-542-XIE. Statistics Canada.