When the 2015 Celebrating Our Volunteers awards are given out on Thursday, April 16, the recipients’ families will be there, perhaps their bosses and some co-workers, certainly the people who nominated them, and the sponsors of the awards. But why should you be there?

Maybe you’ve been at one or two of these community galas in the past, or maybe you’ve attended none of the 17 held so far.

Register to attend at celebratevolunteers.org.

For starters, here are 10 reasons to attend. This is who will be honored: Candice Zehner with the Youth Scholarship Award, Lesanne Bohannon and Cindy Buchta sharing the Daniel P. Spalding Volunteer Educator Award for their work in Neenah schools, Roger Bertschausen with the Waler L. Rugland Community Service Award, Sue Kinde receiving the Paul and Elaine Groth Mentoring Award, David Bond as the Health Care Volunteer, John Bergstrom as the Janet Berry Volunteer of the Year, Jim Heiks receiving the Hanns Kretzschmar Award for Excellence in the Arts and the St. Joseph Food Program and Aerotek Staffing Agency for the Business Partnership of the Year Award.

Each has an inspiring story of service to the community. You will want to be there to hear their stories. You’ll want to be there to thank them – and the many other volunteers in the room – just by your presence. You’ll get to hear where each award winner is donating his or her share of the $36,000 in prize money being awarded to local nonprofits they choose. You’ll like the way you feel about your community walking out of the gala.

Those are all reasons to attend April 16 starting at 5:15 p.m. at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel. But the best reason might be that we all have the privilege of living in a very special place. It’s worth taking the time to celebrate that, and to Celebrate Our Volunteers.

You can register or learn more at CelebrateVolunteers.org. I hope to see you there.

Curt Detjen is president/CEO of the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region. Email him at [email protected].