As we celebrate National Volunteer Week in Canada, let’s take a moment to remember some of our volunteer “pioneers”, like Lotta Hitschmanova.

Can there be another national figure who inspired so many Canadians to volunteer across the country in the 1940s to 1970s?

My own grandmother, Mary Rain in Winnipeg, was one of these.

If you’d like to read more about Lotta’s supporters and volunteers, here are a few articles on the Lotta56Sparks.ca blog that might be of interest:

• Celebrating a Canadian pioneer on International Women’s Day
• Little known Lotta facts for a Friday: from wineries to firehalls – “life in the trenches”
• Little known Lotta facts for a Friday: They danced till they dropped in North Vancouver!
• Little known Lotta facts for a Friday: Stanfield’s underwear, USC volunteers, and Truro NS
• A Christmas message from Lotta: friendship and love

David Rain