Our precious volunteers The Van For fourteen going on fifteen years the "Van" has been traveling the streets of Montreal. The volunteer teams leave the Day Centre on Ontario Street, five nights a week, at 8:00 pm, having loaded up with bins of hot dogs, hot chocolate, coffee and juice, and then the work begins. There are always kids waiting for the volunteers to arrive with hot dogs and smiles. The Van "belongs " to the kids 12 - 25 years old and they know that they can get warm, eat and be always treated with respect. We serve over 140,000 hot dogs a year, so we keep the volunteers busy. Each team goes on the road once every two weeks. A team is made up of a crew chief and five to seven volunteers. Because the van always goes to the same stops, the volunteers and kids slowly get to know each other. The Van can have up to 400 visits on a busy summer night and may not be the right volunteering experience for everyone. It takes time to build a team and we like people to be able to give us a commitment of at least a year. The day center Volunteers are also active at the Day Centre in a variety of activities. The kitchen can always using an extra hand over the lunch hour and the depot, the art room, the music room and the computer room can also use some outside volunteer help. To volunteer The first step is to call the volunteer coordinator. Periodically, an information session is held and people still interested in volunteering will fill out an application and a police check will be done and we will then look for a spot for the newest volunteer. Without volunteers we would not be able to do the work we do. Important Details All volunteers must: - be functionally bilingual - be able to commit to a minimum of one year - pass a police check To apply: E-mail: benevolat@danslarue.org Phone: 514- 526-7677 The number of volunteers who worked at the Van for the last year was 80.