What can you say when you know words are not enough? That’s what we experience when we try to convey the depth of feeling behind the sincere gratitude we feel for our volunteers.

We can thumb through our thesauruses, kick our hyperbole into hyperdrive, become repetitive, and increase the frequency and volume of our messaging, but it all boils down to the same thing - a written thank you is destined to fall short of its desired impact.

Take our recent conference in Salt Lake City as an example. Many of us met each other in person for the first time after largely interacting with each other over Zoom. The in-person dimension was simply astounding! It was like when the black and white film explodes into technicolor in the Wizard of Oz. It's hard to describe the energy exchange and weight of meaning that resulted from the ability to shake hands or hug. If you know, you know.

That brings us to the acknowledgement that, to really show appreciation for our volunteers, we have to take action across multiple dimensions. First, we offer a sincere and authentic written appreciation with the limitations already noted. Second, we act in a way that gives meaning to those words by offering resources and information on a consistent basis. Third, we give time and attention to the development of ongoing support mechanisms for existing and new volunteers. Fourth, we listen. Fifth, we commit to doing all these things over and over.

So, to all our volunteers, across all these dimensions and languages, we say: