Toronto Environmental Volunteers

EcoFair Toronto 2025...

Positions: Day of Volunteer Positions
Organization/event: EcoFair Toronto
Location: In-person volunteering on November 2, 2025

About EcoFair Toronto

EcoFair Toronto is a celebration of the wonderful people, environmental groups, and eco-businesses that are helping create a greener and healthier planet for all.

The 17th annual event will happen on November 2nd, 2025.

The 2025 EcoFair Toronto is a mix of exhibitors, tasty and local sustainable food (come by for lunch!), games, kids' activities, and more, all designed to inform and inspire greener and more sustainable choices in our communities and daily lives. The event also showcases environmental non-profits and environmentally-friendly businesses to celebrate their success and inspire everyone to join them in taking action.

Learn more at ecofairtoronto.org

Volunteer with us!

Are you passionate about the environment and community building? Get behind the scenes of EcoFair Toronto and volunteer with us! Be connected to environmental businesses and organizations, meet like-minded people, challenge yourself and learn something new.

Over 16 years the EcoFair team has established practices for ensuring streamlined delivery of required tasks. Guidance and templates for many of the tasks are available to make requirements and actions clear. Nothing needs to be invented from scratch, but if that is what you like to do and you think you could enhance the EcoFair by adding something new, EcoFair is open to that.

We need members to join the Day of volunteers. Below is a list of the teams and roles. Scroll down further for details of each role.

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APPLY

To apply for any of these positions, please visit this link:
https://forms.gle/URCt9Dc58o8YVtDK9
Please mention you saw this at GoodWork.ca.

If you need accommodations accessing this form (send responses through email or phone, for example), or have any questions, please email Victoria and Chrissa at ecofairtoronto@gmail.com

We welcome you to join our mailing list here: https://us13.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=3530d69eb9e3c548dfc46f70c&id=fa7904884c

If you don't join us as a volunteer, we would still love to have you as a guest at our events. By subscribing, you will receive our e-newsletters on event highlights and a reminder of our events for this and upcoming years.

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Volunteer Responsibilities by Position

Set-Up Team

• At the direction of the lead volunteer, take out tables from the storage room and place them as instructed in the main barn.

• Place 2 chairs per exhibitor table and 8 chairs for each large round table in the food area.

• Use rolls of paper (provided) to cover the tables (use duct tape underneath to hold the covers in place).

• Help put up signage for workshops and other activities.

• Help exhibitors unload their cars and carry their displays to their table.

• Help set up the food court and interactive activities.

• Important! A few set-up volunteers will be assigned to control the drive-up traffic of exhibitors as they unload. Exhibitors have been asked to stop on the road and wait for a volunteer to walk their car down and up the driveway. It is critical that these instructions are followed by the volunteer and the cars: Each vehicle must be accompanied by a spotter to walk the vehicle the entire length of the pathway when both entering and exiting the property. All vehicles must turn on their four-way flashers, keep the driver’s side window open when in motion (so they can hear your instructions), and the vehicle may not exceed 10km/hour. Also, ensure that you keep track of which exhibitors belong to which cars, in case they leave their car on the driveway for too long and we need to ask them to move. There’s room for a maximum of 5 vehicles at a time. Each vehicle is allowed to unload for a maximum of 10 minutes.

Welcome Table

• There are two welcome tables in the Barn – one on the east (Wychwood) entrance and one on the west (Christie) entrance

• Greet incoming attendees with a friendly smile!

• Each table will have a counter. Use the counter to click each time someone enters the Barn so that we can get a sense of how many people attended. Please do not reset the counter as we want a running total for the duration of the entire event.

• At each table there will be a floor plan and list of activities. If someone is looking for something (exhibitor, activity, etc.), use the floor plan to direct them to the right place.

• This year we will be collecting donations for the Stop Food Bank as well as men's socks for NaMeRes

Interactive Activities

• Interactive activities are located on the east side of the Barn as well as on the Christie Street pavement.

  • Tasks include assisting interactive vendors and answering and community members’ questions.

  • Also directing individuals to the various interactive activities around the barns.

Food Vendor Team

• Our goal is a low waste-to-landfill event. We are taking measures by using reusable materials in accordance with the City of Toronto's waste diversion program. We are also utilizing Muuse’s reusable dishes for our food vendors in order to eliminate single-use dining products.

• The lead volunteer will provide instructions at the beginning of the shift. Most of the shift will be spent ensuring vendors are fully stocked with the dishes and clearing dining areas for attendees.

• Dress warmly with layers you can take off if you get warm - part of the day will be spent inside and part of it will be outside.

Silent Auction

• Help set-up the silent auction to ensure all the items have a bid sheet next to it, and ensure that the table is neatly organized throughout the auction.

• Enthusiastically encourage people passing by to take a look at the silent auction items.

• Proceeds from the silent auction go towards covering the cost of running EcoFair at the Barns (venue rental, insurance, etc.). Items are donated by exhibitors and local businesses.

• We are splitting the items into two auctions – the first auction will close at 1:00pm and the second will close at 3:30pm. This way those who arrive early don’t have to wait around until the end of the event to see if they won.

• Auction items will be displayed on the table with the bid sheets. Each bid sheet lists the item name, the value of the item, the minimum bid, and minimum bid increments. For example, a gift certificate worth $50 may have a minimum bid of $10 and minimum bid increments of $5. That means the first person to bid must bid a minimum of $10, and the next person to bid must bid a minimum of $15, and so on.

• At the close of the auction, volunteers will take away the bid sheets immediately so that no one else can write down a bid. We will make an announcement to ask bidders to come to the table to see if they won, and to pay for and collect their winning item. We have a square reader so we will be accepting credit and debit cards.

• One of the Committee Volunteers will collect the payment and the volunteers will help distribute the item to the winner.

Exit Survey Team

• Survey volunteers will stand at the exits and will be asking attendees a couple of simple questions as they leave the event. A survey sheet, clipboard and pen will be provided. Please print neatly.

• Survey volunteers must be very engaging and approachable as people may be in a rush to leave. Don’t be discouraged if people ignore you, though – they may be in too much of a rush.

• Ask them the questions, mark down their answers on the provided sheets (clipboard provided) and thank them for their feedback. Answers will help us make next year’s event even more enjoyable.

• Important: Volunteers in this role should be very knowledgeable about the EcoFair. Often, someone will suggest something that the EcoFair already has in place. It’s nice if the exit survey volunteer can mention to them that they can go back to check out whatever they suggested. For example, someone may suggest that there should be food options; in this case, the volunteer should point out that there’s a food court at the east end of the space.

Street Team / Outdoor Event Promotion

• Collect the EcoFair sign and flyers at the organizers’ booth before going outside.

• Please dress appropriately for outdoor weather. It may be quite cold that day, and you will be outside.

• In teams, volunteers walk around the neighbourhood with the sign, telling people walking around that there’s a free EcoFair going on right now at Wychwood Barns, and giving out flyers to those who want one. Point people in the direction of Wychwood Barns. Please do not go on private property.

• If it’s too cold or rainy, please feel free to return to the Barn to warm up before going out again.

• This is a very important role as not everyone knows that the event is taking place, so the street team maximizes the number of people who attend the event to learn about living an eco-friendly lifestyle!

Photographer

• Take photos of all individual exhibitors so that we can send the pics to the exhibitor. Try to get the exhibitor posing at the table and also “in action” talking to attendees.

• Take wide angle shots of the main space to show how many people are at the event.

• There are signs on the entrances advising attendees that their photos may be taken at the event and if they would rather not have their photo taken, to tell the photographer or the organizers’ booth.

• If you’re taking a photo of children’s faces, please ask their parents for permission first, and let them know that the photos may be used online (without names) to promote the event. Otherwise, focus on busy hands or other views of busy children.

• It would be great if we could get your cell phone number so that we can call you if we need you to immediately take a special photo at the organizers’ booth – this will come into play when we have invited politicians arrive.

• Please send us the photos (e.g. via Dropbox or Google Drive) as soon as possible after the event so that we can upload them and send them to the exhibitors on a timely basis. Please confirm in your email that your photos may be used freely by the EcoFair organizers.

 

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APPLY

To apply for any of these positions, please visit this link:
https://forms.gle/URCt9Dc58o8YVtDK9

Please mention you saw this at GoodWork.ca.