On December 7, the ROC Volunteers Association held the 16thpresentation ceremony of Model Volunteer Family and Gold Volunteer Awards at the 4th floor assembly hall of Taichung City Hall on Taiwan Boulevard. Tseng Hua-Yuan (曾華源), Professor of Social Work Department of Tunghai University, was invited to chair the jury, which selected five families for the Model Volunteer Family Award. Moreover, Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權), former Secretary-General of Presidential Office, conferred Gold Volunteer Awards to five families, including that of Chen Jin-Hwa (陳進發), for their dedication to volunteering service up to 20 years.

Present at the event were about 200 volunteers from across the country, Huang Guo-Rong (黃國榮, Deputy Mayor of Taichung City), Jiang Guo-Ren (江國仁, Deputy Director-general of Department of Social Assistance and Social Work, Ministry of Health and Welfare), Liao Su- ling (廖素玲, Deputy Director-general of Social Affairs Bureau of Taichung City Government), and Liu Shi-Chou (劉士州, Councilman of Taichung City Council). Deputy Mayor Huang conferred awards to representatives of volunteer families in recognition of their hard work and sacrifice over the years.

In the event, Deputy Mayor Huang and Deputy Director-general Jiang conferred the most prestigious Gold Volunteer Award to five model families and the Volunteer Service Award to 20 volunteer families. In addition, 24 volunteer teams and 39 outstanding volunteers were also recognized.

Deputy Mayor Huang Guo-Rong said in his speech, “We are taught that to give is more blessed than to receive. However, it is never easy to practice the teaching in every-day life for so many years like our award-winning volunteers. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to every volunteer. The Taichung City Government attaches great importance to voluntary service and I am happy to know that we have in Taichung City about 60,000 volunteers serving nearly 3 million hours and saving about NT$300 million in government spending. Among the 28 bureaus and agencies of the Taichung City Government, 24 are benefited by the services of our dedicated volunteers. We hope to further improve the volunteering quality and quantity through active promotion, education and training.”

Chen Jin-long (陳金龍), Chairman of ROC Volunteers Association, said, “We have had a record-high number of 107 families from across the country to compete for the Gold Volunteer Award and the Model Volunteer Family Award this year. Although the volunteers are not up for awards, their effort and dedication can serve as a benchmark for the society if the volunteers are recognized.”

Any family recommended to compete for the Model Volunteer Family Award must consist of at least two members with a Volunteer Service Record Book issued by the Government. Each member must be involved in volunteering service for at least 500 hours and three years while the family must have provided service for at least 3,000 hours in total. All the contenders must go through preliminary, semi-final and final reviews to enter into the 20 finalists, namely 4 Extra Excellence and 16 Excellence, said the ROC Volunteers Association.