§ Emergency volunteers:

” #8

B6 Terrace Review — Wednesday, April 17, 1991

i EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS W.

EEK — APRIL 20-27 ‘| a

Starting to follow up a story is much the same as starting on a journey — so much interesting and unexpected material keeps coming up. You think you know something about. the territory and then find out how much more there is.

The week of April 20 to 27 is Emergency Preparedness Week. The week begins with the display of a 200-bed emergency hospital at the Air Cadet Hall through Wednesday and ends with a number of displays at Skeena Mall on Friday and Saturday. A highlight of the mall display will be a fire suppression and auto extrication demonstration in the mall parking lot by Terrace and Thornhill firefighters. The first demonstration will take place at 7 p.m. April 26 and the second at 10 a.m. the following morning.

One intent of the awareness week for the local emergency programs is to help the public realize how much the system depends on volunteers who devote hundreds of hours of their collective time to make the community ready for the worst if and when it happens.

The visible and vocal presence in Terrace ‘‘at the top’’ of PEP (everyone in Terrace will tell you) is Ray Tank. His enthusi- asm and energy and knowledge catches you up when you begin the process of talking to people about emergency programs.

One of the programs of PEP is Emergency Social Services, which provides Victim Assis- tance in case of emergencies. It is an enormous blanket under which many sub-agencies gather.

Anne Anson and Pam Gow are the coordinators. Using their extensive local knowledge of the area and its residents, these two have amassed an army of key people who can be recruited at a moment’s notice in time of need.

‘The support is unbeliev- able,” said Anne, ‘‘We never get turned down except for real rea- sons.

‘Tn an emergency, we are call- ed by Ray Tank, local represen- tative, or Rod Salem, represen-

Monday

tative for northern B.C.,’’ she said, ‘And then we have this ar- my to mobilize if we need it.”’

First they decide how many and what kind of services will be needed, then they phone the coordinators.

In charge of food provision, there are Lil Kenney and Virgin- ia Solowoniuk.

For lodging: Ellanore Turner and Patricia St. Thomas.

Clothing: Lil Debalinhard and Sandra Parr.

Registration and Inquiry: Gert Grundmann and ‘‘Curly’’ Casey and the Happy Gang Cen- tre.

Reception Centre: Ed Kenney and Hugh Power. -

Personal Services: the Salva- tion Army under Capt. Mike Hoeft. (The Salvation Army provides these services through-

- out B.C.)

Financial Services: the Minis- try of Social Services, under Terri Tjernstrom.

The Community Coordinator is appointed by the City of Ter- race.

Volunteer coordinators are being recruited to be in charge of animals and other pets, and PEP is still looking at other needs, such as for children.

“It is all coming together,”’ said Pam Gow, “‘It is up to us to set goals and to organize.”

Pam and Anne are very im- pressed with the keen people throughout the organization. “You know you have this vast

back-up of people behind you,”

they said, ‘“‘And that any job they are given will be done 150 percent.

“We thought it might be dif- ficult to maintain interest, but it doesn’t seem to be. Workshops help. Mary Clappa, a consultant with PEP has come here several times to put on workshops. This helps enormously, keeping in- terest in the program and keep- ing everyone up to date.”

They would like to encourage anyone who is interested in any part of the program to come see the displays in the Skeena Mall April 20-27, and to get in touch with the coordinators.

they're

Lis Kenney, Virginia Solowonluk: We can take it in our stride.

Feeding the masses — it’s much more than heating up the soup

Ina pause at the end of a busy day, Lil Kenney, Cafeteria Su- pervisor, and Virginia Solowon-

iuk, Cook II, sat with their staff

in the cafeteria of Northwest Community College. Friends for more than 25 years, working as- sociates for more than half that,

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these two have a background in food preparation which they have offered unquestioriably to the Emergency Social Services (ESS). -

‘‘We haven’t really been test-

ed so far,’’ said Lil, ‘“We have. about 12 people to back us up — . all our staff here and others we

can call on with a phone call, if necessary.

‘The nearest thing was the slide on Highway 16 about 10 years ago, when rescuers had to dig for the people in the cafe that was buried. We got a phone call of how many people were in- volved, we called out our staff, phoned the suppliers on our lists and went to work.

‘*Having all the equipment to

feed several hundred people a day and being used to the size of the quantities, we can. take it in ‘our stride,”? she said.

They have a list of designated people to phone among sup- pliers, warehouses and distri-_ butors. °

To keep their knowledge up to date they attend meetings and demonstrations. ‘‘It helps to keep you interested,” said Vir- ginia, ‘‘and even though we haven’t had a real crisis, it is still kind of exciting.”

Their matter-of-fact accep- tance that they would naturally volunteer for any emergency is typical of people in the Emer- gency Social Services.

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