A decade ago in our society, elders were often stereotyped as the burden of the community. The HKCS held the 1st Elderly Volunteer Award Scheme in 1990 to encourage elders to participate in social services. The Scheme has gained much positive feedback and successfully showed elders' ability to reverse their negative image among the public. Throughout the past 10 years, elders have contributed tremendously in the community while at the same time, they learnt new skills and knowledge to provide quality service. Today, the role of elderly volunteers varies between instructors, organizers, or coordinators and etc.

In the past 10 years, the Elderly Volunteer Award Scheme has given 4,591 awards to 3,870 elders. Till 1998, the Social Welfare Department confirmed the Volunteer Movement and it has been recognized as a long-term task. The fact stated that, the cultivation of elderly volunteer service has evolved to a social consensus jointed promoted by different bodies in the society rather than solely being our own mission. This reflected what we believed a decade ago is being more acknowledged by the public. It is also a time for the advocator to retire.

The 10th and final Elderly Volunteer Award Scheme Presentation Ceremony was held on February 21, 2000. In total, there were 1,404 elders participated in this year's Scheme to provide 58,893.75 hours of community service. Among them, 108 elderly volunteers received the diamond awards, 100 elderly volunteers received the golden awards, 125 elderly volunteers received the silver awards, and 145 elderly volunteers received the bronze awards.

In addition, the HKCS has published an Elderly Volunteer Award Scheme -Memorable Edition Magazine. The contents include a summary of the scheme from its beginning to the end, survey data, stories and interviews of some of our elderly volunteers. Other contents include an article written by Dr Alex Kwan, Professor of Department of Applied Social Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, on the flashback of the Elderly Volunteer Award Scheme; and an article written by Mrs Eliza Leung, Assistant Director of the Social Welfare Department, on the future development of elderly volunteer service. Through the content varieties, we hope to widely promote elderly volunteer service to the general public.