“Be open. Be willing to try something you’ve never ever done before. But don’t feel that you have to and really know your physical and mental limits.”
Looking back on over 30 years volunteering with the Canadian Red Cross, Bobbi Montean speaks from a wealth of experience.
Before settling in Thompson, Man., where her volunteering career began, Bobbi travelled across western Manitoba with the carnival. She ran booths and set up rides. On one of her trips, she passed through the northern city. Bobbie turned to her partner and said that this was going to be her home. She has lived there ever since.
A woman who has worn many hats, she was one of the first female bouncers in northern Manitoba. The thread that binds her career is her caring and concern for others, her ability to defuse difficult situations, and her critical thinking skills.
She needed every tool in her toolbox when she was thrown headlong into her first volunteering experience.
Bobbi began volunteering in the summer of 1989, dubbed the season of infernos, as fires raged out of control in three provinces. She had just relocated to Thompson to start a degree in social work. At the time, Thompson’s population was 15,000. With over 18,000 evacuees from northern communities, the city more than doubled in size. Fires raged to the south, the airport shut down, and roads were closed.
Minutes after walking into the Thompson recreation centre, Bobbi was put to work. By nightfall she had helped set up four shelters. Within days, Bobbi was wearing a Red Cross vest and registering evacuees.
“In ’89 I probably put in a month straight of volunteering and I became hooked. I loved it. I loved the work that I was doing. Being with different people, our northern neighbours, being able to support them. Some of them came from communities where they didn’t know if there was going to be a community after.”
Volunteering for that length of time in one go gave Bobbi perspective on the challenges of supporting northern communities. She wanted the opportunity to express how the north is different from Winnipeg. She wanted to be involved.
Long before a formal process was set up in the north, Bobbi was providing informal personal disaster assistance when people in the community experienced house fires. She documented the number of cases and now there is a fully trained and formalized personal disaster assistance (PDA) team to support the community.
Bobbi encourages people to volunteer with the Canadian Red Cross.
“Do it! The experiences are out of this world. Would I have had the opportunity to travel as much as I did? Probably not. I have met and worked with some very interesting people, including police officers, community members, and sometimes even the occasional celebrity!”