Ceremony to Honor 1,100 City Volunteers

In celebration of National Volunteer Week, the city’s 1,100 volunteers have been invited to a ceremony at City Hall.

The annual event will be held at 3 p.m. Thursday in the Atrium at 501 Poli St.

Mayor Jack Tingstrom will help distribute service awards and announce the selection of Ventura’s Volunteer Group Award and the Volunteer of the Year Award. The ceremony will also recognize the achievements of participants in the “Volunteers for Ventura” program.

“A strong volunteer program like ours means that the city of Ventura is able to offer many of its services to the public at considerable cost savings of taxpayers’ dollars,” Tingstrom said. “National Volunteer Week is the time of year we try to make the public aware of how much these volunteers mean to us.”

Since last April, volunteers in Ventura have contributed more than 70,000 hours of service in various capacities throughout city departments that include police, fire, city manager, finance, human resources, special events, Special Olympics, planning, parks, waste management and community services.

The finalists for this year’s Volunteer Group Award are the Mormon Missionaries--The Elders and Sisters; the Olivas Adobe Volunteer Historical Interpreter; the Western Aires Band; and the Westside Storefront Volunteer Corps.

The finalists for the Volunteer of the Year Award are Shawna Atchison, who works the city information switchboard; Edess Fargo, who has volunteered in the city clerk’s office for nearly two years; and Ed Klein, who has volunteered 2,033 hours to Ventura and also helps low-income, elderly residents to prepare their income taxes.