VITERBO – In the council room of Palazzo dei Priori, the 17th edition of the Volunteer Festival, organized by the Volunteer Council of the Municipality of Viterbo, was presented to the press. The following people spoke: Chiara Frontinimayor, Patrizia Notaristefano councilor for social policies, Raimondo Raimondipresident of the Volunteer Council of the Municipality of Viterbo, Paolo Moricoli, Melania Perazzini And Antonella Sbernamembers of the executive of the Council and municipal councillors, Alessandro Alfonsini, Domenico Arruzzolo and Paola Massarellimembers of the executive of the Volunteer Council of the Municipality of Viterbo, Martino Tokunbo of “La via”the president of the city council Marco Ciorbathe municipal councilor Matteo Achilli and the representatives of the associations of the municipal volunteer council involved in the festival.
The mayor underlined the importance of this event which involves young people who, with their volunteering, represent the arms and legs of the institutions. Councilor Notaristefano briefly thanked everyone for the tiring and important work done. Raimondo Raimondi – President of the Volunteer Council has the entire Administration and the Mayor and you of your presence.
This year we celebrate the XVII Volunteer Festival, and we celebrate it with a new format, both in duration: three days, and in that it has a guiding theme of the events that compose it.
The festival is organized by the Volunteer Council, but over 50 associations, some of which are not part of the Council, collaborated, proposing and creating 25 events.
The main theme is indicated by the title “VolontariaMENTEgiovani”.
There will be a rich presence of young people from the inauguration on the morning of the 24th at the Camposcuola where students from the Egidi, Fantappiè and Vanni Institutes will participate in recreational sports activities organized with the Viterbo Athletic Society and the Regional FIDAL.
Young participants include scouts, UNITUS university students, students of the Provincial Student Council and those of the Middle School Students Network.
A special mention must be made to the girls and boys of the Orioli Institute who designed and created the festival logo. Thanks also to the Director and teachers of that Institute.
I thank patrons and contributors: Province of Viterbo, ASL, CARIVIT Foundation, University of Tuscia, Banca Lazio Nord, Coni, Italian Paralympic Committee, Special Olympics Italy, CSV LAZIO, UNICOOP Tirreno.
I must give particular credit to the three colleagues of the Council Executive: Alessandro Alfonsini, Domenico Arruzzolo and Paola Massarelli.
Alessandro, Domenico and Paola conceived the new format of the festival and took on the organizational burden for months, involving the associations of the Consulta and the collaborating bodies at every step, even in public meetings: those on 15/3/ were very well attended 24 and 2/5/24 and of the Assembly of the Council of 22/3/24. The festival program is the result of this involvement.
The experience gained in recent months will be invaluable for future editions of the festival. I hope that Alessandro, Domenico and Paola can and want to repeat themselves and improve.
Furthermore, the experience has made clear the need to have an ad hoc chapter for the festival in the Municipality’s budget: this would give security to the organisers, facilitate spending commitments and reporting and limit the use of external financing.
Allow me to conclude with a personal note: volunteering was created to eliminate the barriers that aggravate the fragility of existence: physical, psychological, social, generational, gender, cultural, ethnic barriers. Eliminating barriers is the underlying tone common to the entire world of volunteering. Eliminating barriers could be the theme of the next festival.
