This past Saturday night, YCI representatives Jane and Jessica had the pleasure of attending the Toronto Timeraiser in the Distillery District.

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Jane with the YCI setup!

Timeraiser is an event that has been described by its founder, Anil Patel, as “like speed dating for volunteers.” Volunteers have an hour to talk and meet with agency representative before selecting organization that fits their interests. Once they’ve selected their top agencies, they’re able to participate in a silent auction for art by local artists–but instead of bidding with money, volunteers bid with time, or the amount of hours that they will dedicate to volunteering in their community in the next year. 

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Jessica gearing up to talk to volunteers at the YCI booth

While YCI offers a number of opportunities for prospective volunteers and returned alumni, including the Volunteer Action Network, the Volunteer Advisory Committee and our in-office volunteer program, we were present at the Timeraiser to highlight some  new volunteer opportunities! (Including the very exciting opportunity to get involved with planning our anniversary. Did you know that YCI has been sending volunteers overseas for more then 20 years?) Volunteers at the event came from a diverse range of backgrounds, but many were young professionals looking to get more involved in their community, and in some cases, looking for opportunities to apply their professional skills to help out organizations like YCI.

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Jess chats up some prospective volunteers. (Credits to Timeraiser’s Flickr album for this photo.)

The event was a success. If the Timeraiser is, in fact, like speed dating, then Jane and Jess both met tons of prospective volunteers that would be solid second-date material.

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The crowd at the 2009 Toronto Timeraiser.

By the end of the night, more than 10,000 volunteer hours had been raised for Toronto organizations. A big thank you goes out to the Framework Foundation for having us. We’re excited to welcome new volunteers into our office–regardless of whether they’re seasoned pros, or first-time volunteers.

For more information about how you can get involved and volunteer with YCI in Toronto, or in your home community, check out our website or email us at generalinfo@yci.org.

To learn more about Timeraisers in your city, check out www.timeraiser.ca.

-Jessica Lockhart, International Programs Coordinator, and Jane Baldwin, Volunteer Programs Liasion