In 1974, President Richard M. Nixon created by executive order this week in April as National Volunteer Week. This week signaled a recommitment to creating a culture of service in America by millions of Americans. This year, National Volunteer Week officially occurs April 10-16, 2011. Through the years, since the inception of this program, the recognition for this tribute has grown into a month-long celebration of those who take an active role in reaching out and giving back to their communities and individual organizations.
Here in Post Falls, we wish to extend a very special "Thank You" to the many volunteers we have, who engage themselves and dedicate their time and service to the Police Department and the City of Post Falls. Since our program began in 2003, our volunteers have helped discover creative ways to meet the expanding needs for services, which create meaningful change in our community.
Our volunteer program is responsible for assisting the Police Department in a wide array of tasks and many different functions of everyday policing. They are some of the first people you meet when you come to the Police Department and need a question answered or some assistance. They are always very cheerful and positive and they help with answering telephones, inputting information from reports and citations, filing and maintaining forms and brochures. They assist our Evidence Technician and Detectives with case preparation for court, as well as, providing a patrol presence in our neighborhoods. People who leave their homes while away on vacation are always very pleased that our volunteers check their residences throughout their absence to maintain security until they return.
Our volunteers help with the patrol presence and assist with abandoned vehicles, parking citations and speed detection in our neighborhoods. They provide a police presence on the Centennial Trail in the summer months. Our Dare Program always has a strong hand from our volunteers, as they help assemble the packets of information and they attend the graduation of all of our students. Our volunteers have a strong presence with our seniors in the community, as they assist at the Senior Center and with our "You are Not Alone" Program. Anytime there is a special event in the community, you will find a group of them there lending a hand. You can even find them assisting in our schools, with our youth and at our animal shelter.
"To commemorate this signature week of volunteer recognition, I can't say enough about the good that these people provide to our community on a daily basis. It's because of these individuals and their personal desire to give back to their community that we have the success in the program that we do," said Police Chief Scot Haug.
Post Falls currently has 20 volunteers in our volunteer program, who are active on a weekly basis and are always willing to serve. Since our program began in 2003, these volunteers have donated more than 56,000 hours. This equates to a dollar value of savings for the City of approximately $755,000.00. That means that our volunteers have donated over three quarters of a million dollars of extra time, which has been a huge benefit to the services we provide in making our community a safer place to live and raise our families.
What a wonderful group of dedicated people that we have here in our community. Please look around, as you go about your daily life in your community, and take a moment out of your day to thank a volunteer you encounter. It will make their day!!
If you have an interest in becoming part of our volunteer team, applications are available at the Post Falls Police Department for individuals 18 years or older who do not have a felony record. If you want additional information, please contact us at (208) 773-3517.
