We’re excited to announce our first recipient for our new Volunteer of the Month program! Erica Herron was nominated by the Red Deer Health Foundation for the 180 hours of time that Erica has spent volunteering for the Red Deer Regional Health Foundation. It is a significant amount of time, but that is not the only reason Erica has been given this award. It is the manner in which she does the volunteering.

She is dedicated. For example, Brent Labrosse, Donor & Volunteer Relations Coordinator for the Foundation, shared with me a story of her spending 3 hours above and beyond her scheduled shift at A Taste of Red Deer because of the unexpected volume of attendees. “Erica works extremely hard and jumps in with two feet, no matter the task.”

She is trustworthy. “She is extremely reliable and has the best intentions of the Foundation at heart as she does her volunteer work,” tells Cynthia de Boer, Event Manager at the Foundation.

She is fun. “Fun, funny, happy, enthusiastic, always smiling, positive!” Explains de Boer. “Yes, Erica is definitely fun to be around.” At the end of the aforementioned difficulties at the Taste of Red Deer, her personality still shone through. Labrosse worked with her that day and at the end of the night, with everyone tired and weary, “she managed to make us all smile at the end of a long day by having a tape ball game while we were pulling electrical wires, knowing we were all tired and at the end of our physical capabilities.”

When Erica was asked why she volunteered, she put it quite simply: “For the pure fun of it.

But she knows that everything isn’t fun and games. “We set the first impression of the event,” she says.” I take that seriously.”

And it is the balance of her earnest hard work and outgoing personality that has earned her the award as our Volunteer of the Month. Congratulations, Erica. You deserve it!

We are now accepting nominations for October. Find out how to nominate a volunteer here.

Erica’s profile was written by our volunteer blogger, Ryan Charles Parker.