This week is National Volunteer Week in Canada and Cranbrook marked the occasion with a flag-raising ceremony at City Hall Monday with Mayor Scott Manjak and local volunteer Kristen Rogers.

Mayor Manjak said the many volunteers in the city make Cranbrook a more desirous place to live

Referring to the Volunteer Proclamation kicking off the week,, Manjak said “many local volunteers mentor our children, feed our hungry, comfort the lonely, beautify our green spaces, and fund-raise for our many charitable organizations.

“Many of our local volunteers are young, old, families, workers, retirees, men and women of all ages and backgrounds,” said the Mayor.

Manjak said the many volunteers and volunteer organizations in the Key City are too numerous to mention individually, but together they do far more charitable work for the city than individuals acting alone could do or government could afford to do on its own.

Some 11.8 million Canadians volunteer annually and contribute almost two billion volunteer hours helping others every year according to Statistics Canada. Close to 56 per cent of all Canadians volunteer with women slightly outnumbering men when it comes to volunteering.

A study by the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute showed that people tend to volunteer more as they grow older with retirees spending the most time volunteering until sickness or incapacity prevents them from doing so. On average, young adults spent 91 hours annually volunteering and older adults more than 110 hours over the same period.

Ruth MacKenzie, president and CEO of Volunteer Canada, says National Volunteer Week celebrates the efforts of volunteers to highlight the positive effect their work has on society.

MacKenzie says volunteering today has moved far beyond only physical help — many professionals are donating their knowledge and skills to help mentor others than ever before.

“We’re seeing a real shift to the focus being more skills-based and more talent-based. People are realizing they want to pass on their skills they’ve learned during their careers to others,” she said.

“The big goal is to draw attention to the 12.5 million Canadians who dedicate their time to make their communities better. They make change, they ignite movements and they just make things better for our society. People have really busy lives and just the fact that they take some time to volunteer, that’s transformative to our way of life and our social fabric,” MacKenzie said.