As part of the National Volunteer Week, on Tuesday 18 May PRONIA celebrated its own volunteer in a very warm and moving event in the ‘Odysseas’ hall of the Ithacan Philanthropic Society of Melbourne. About eighty volunteers happily reconnected with friends and acquaintances after so long and they enjoyed the warm hospitality and moving speeches of other volunteers.  PRONIA would like to thank the board members of the Ithacan Philanthropic Society who did their best to brighten the celebration with their cordial hospitality and generosity.

Also present at the event were the President of PRONIA Mrs. Chris Pavlidis, CEO Mrs. Tina Douvos-Stathopoulos and Deputy Director Mrs. Nikki Efremidis.  In her speech, volunteers Coordinator Mrs Paraskevi Tsinga, mentioned that PRONIA volunteers are the backbone of the organisation and they make everyone proud with their work that they offer so selflessly to the Greek community. Reference was also made to this year’s theme of the week: “RECOGNISE, RECONNECT, REIMAGINE” that means: We recognise, celebrate and thank volunteers for the vital role they play in our lives. We reconnect to our community and we continue to offer and we reimagine the needs for volunteerism especially after the experiences of the pandemic years 2020-21. It is worth noting that in the midst of the pandemic, volunteers continued to offer services to vulnerable people in our community and to provide uninterrupted communication, care and support. Volunteers make our communities stronger, especially in times of need, crisis or isolation.

Volunteers Maria Michalopoulos and Lemonia Schinia also gave very emotional speeches. Maria referred to her personal moving experiences from her volunteer work visiting elderly people in their homes for over twenty years. Lemonia referred to the impact of PRONIA volunteers but also to her own contribution to the beloved seniors that she visits. Guest speaker of the event and a volunteer himself was Platon Denezakis from the community TV channel 31.

His speech covered his lifelong volunteer work through his journalistic career, with special emphasis on the contribution to the human social element. Bringing examples of his own work, Platon referred to the importance of the social contribution, to the awareness for the social needs of our community as well as to the social assistance for the improvement of the lives of our community members.

Finally, all the volunteers were awarded a Certificate of Recognition from Ms Nikki Efremidis.

Those who would like to feel the spirit of the celebration can tune in on channel C31 on Monday, 24th May at 6 pm.

If you would like to join the PRONIA volunteers, call (03) 9388 9998, volunteers department.

PRONIA volunteers together again during the celebration in their honour.