The Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon has been a regular annual event held by ACC Senior Services for many years. This has traditionally been an opportunity for ACC to give back to our volunteers and thank them for all the service they provide to both ACC and our community.
Normally this event is held in April of each year, but due to COVID-19 and the concern for the health and safety of our volunteers and staff, it had to be postponed. We still wanted to show our appreciation to our volunteers, however, and our Volunteer Development Committee came up with the great idea of having a drive-through event to have people come pick up an insulated lunch bag filled with a fresh Vietnamese sandwich, drink, ramen, cookies, cloth face mask and some appreciation cards.
Nancy Iseri places items into bags. Virginia and Linda perform quality control.
Cynthia Huang places Vietnamese bánh mì sandwiches into lunch bags.
Board Vice Chair Chiang Wang loads his car before starting on his delivery route.
Plans were well under way to do this, with over 150 volunteers signed up, and the logistics were almost complete. As the pandemic worsened in the Sacramento community and at ACC, the staging of the event was looking to become more and more difficult. Volunteers would not be allowed to assist staff with the event, and staff from other ACC facilities would no longer be available to assist. With these challenges in mind, the Committee came up with the great idea to do a lunch delivery instead of a pick-up.
Gene Kato joined other staff and volunteers to pack 150 lunches for door-to-door delivery.
With the help of the Volunteer Development Committee, ACC Rides and ACC management staff, in two short weeks a plan was developed to have 15 volunteer and staff drivers deliver all 150 or more lunches to our volunteers all over Sacramento County. It was a rewarding experience for all of us involved with the event, and the feedback from our volunteers was overwhelmingly positive. We are hopeful we’ll be able to show our appreciation for all our volunteers again in the near future, and we miss all of them very much!
ACC President and CEO Darrick Lam delivers lunch to Board member Titus Toyama in appreciation for his service.
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