Volunteering (Page 17)

On disaster responses, there are many different jobs that make the operation possible. In addition to volunteers and staff working face-to-face with those affected, there are also numerous behind-the-scenes responders who help keep the operation running smoothly. Canadian Red Cross volunteer David Rennie of Halifax, Nova Scotia is one such volunteer.

Canadian Red Cross volunteer Leslie White has spent most of her life ensuring the safety of those around water. Now as a City of St. John’s, Facilities Supervisor with the Department of Community Services in Newfoundland, her team oversees four aquatic centres, recreation facilities and more than 100 staff, while she volunteers with the Red Cross in multiple capacities.

When people need to evacuate, they often don’t have the opportunity to take with them the basics like shampoo, toothpaste, diapers and baby supplies. Learn how the Red Cross helped provide essential items to people impacted by flooding this spring.

David Fraser has been a disaster management and communications volunteer for more than 10 years, providing comfort in times of emergency for many Canadians. Recently, he received the highest honour as a volunteer, the Order of the Red Cross, for his dedication in going above and beyond to help others.

Whether ensuring people are getting the equipment they need, or washing and maintaining returned equipment, the Red Cross Health Equipment Loan Program (HELP) relies on its volunteers.

To mark National Indigenous Peoples Day, we wanted to share some of the ways Red Cross is working in partnership with Indigenous communities across the country, in response to disasters as well as through programs to promote preparedness, safety, and wellbeing.
 

Omar Abdullahi, a social worker who lives in Winnipeg, volunteers with the safety and wellbeing team of the Canadian Red Cross. He is working with evacuees from the northern Manitoba wildfires.
Before coming to Canada, Omar and his family were refugees from the Somalian civil war. When he was about 10 years old, his family, including his six sisters and two brothers, fled Mogadishu for the Kenyan border.

At first glance, it’s hard to understand what Pat Alphonse Cox does for the Canadian Red Cross. Volunteering at the Winnipeg reception centre for wildfire evacuees, Pat chats for a few minutes with a large, boisterous family from Pauingassi First Nation; corrals a small, energetic child closer to her mom; and then sits quietly with a slouching teenager. It all seems a little random, but on closer examination, Pat’s role becomes clear and her work crucial. Pat is a Safety and Wellbeing responder with the Canadian Red Cross.