We did a "Hats off to our Volunteers" theme this year. We encouraged everyone to wear a hat. We had the Red Hat Ladies group sing and we did our table centerpieces in red and purple with candy boxes in the bag (which was the red and purple with feathers around the top). We handed out little red hat pins to the ladies and I don't remember what to the men. Everyone had a blast with it, some of the hats were worn in the 40s and 50s. For our booklet cover and invitations, it said Hats off to the volunteers and graphics of hats all over.
We had the same theme a few years ago and created our own centerpieces. We bought different types of hats and placed wire bottle brushes on top of the hats. They look like fireworks. At the tip of each bottle brush we added smaller cut outs of hats. It was really colorful.
We gave them each a cat in a hat (Dr. Seus) and attached a KIT KAT candy bar that said, "Thanks Ambassadors! You're the Kats Meow! This is a saying more familiar to seniors.
Volunteers were encouraged to wear hats. We then held a contest for smallest hat, biggest hat, oldest hat, most elegant and awarded prizes.
Throughout the year we took action shots of the volunteers and created a scrap book with all their pictures.
We purchased some plain canvas tote bags and transfered a picture of them onto the tote bag. They loved this and use the tote everyday they volunteer.