“Passion is the spark that ignites the flame…”
― Deborah Brodie
Many people may not know that even with a hardworking staff of 21 employees, WaterFire Providence deeply relies on our dedicated corps of hundreds of volunteers to produce our events. Over 200 members of the community come together to participate in and run each lighting of WaterFire in Providence. It is their enthusiasm and their belief in the idea of WaterFire that makes the city come alive. They work tirelessly day and night, before, during and after each fire. Such devotion and hard work deserves better acknowledgment than just a sincere thank you.
Each year we show our volunteers how much we appreciate them by throwing a huge party to recognize their contributions. On Sunday, February 23 we celebrated with our volunteers at The Spot Underground, a beautiful and eclectic live music venue on Richmond Street in Providence. The night was filled with great energy featuring live music from WaterFire Providence’s long time Fire Dancer, Spogga Hash, and The Free Funk All Stars, top shelf catering by Russell Morin Fine Catering, cold drinks from McLaughlin & Moran, Inc., a delicious and beautifully decorated cake from Sin, and a fun opportunity for party favors via a photo booth donated by A Bride’s Day.
Providence Mayor Angel Taveras even made a special appearance at the event to present a citation in recognition of the outstanding dedication that all the WaterFire Providence Volunteers demonstrated over the course of the 2013 event season.
Many local organizations and businesses also kindly donated gifts as their way of giving back and saying thank you to the volunteers. Items such as tickets to local theater performances, movie cinemas, restaurant gift cards, and weekend getaways, all made wonderful raffle prizes for the event. In addition, a 2013 volunteer tee shirt was designed from the responses of our volunteers when asked, “What does being a WaterFire volunteer mean to you?”. Tee shirts were given as party favors to all the volunteers in attendance!
All in all, it was a fabulous night filled with song and laughter, dance and dapper! For more information on how you can not only help create the magic of WaterFire, but also make new friends and attend lively WaterFire events visit waterfire.org/volunteer.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMCO7VA2smw[/youtube]
