Rec Cross hosting Volunteer Recruitment

Man power needed for Cold Lake Personal & Emergency Response Disaster Assistance Team

The Canadian Red Cross disaster management team is in need of more volunteers. They will be hosting a volunteer drive on March 23rd at the FCSS. Vishva Ragunathan, with the Red Cross, says the unit responds to a number of different situations, “to small and large scales disasters such as house and forest fires.”

Volunteers are needed to man the Cold Lake Personal and Emergency Response Disaster Assistance Team. Ragunathan explains the members, “are on call to help individuals, families and communities affected by disasters by providing emergency relief such as food, clothing and shelter. They are also available to provide long term recovery operations (registration and inquiry, manage shelters etc.) during major disasters across the country.”

“The Cold Lake and district disaster management team is made up of community members, retirees, school teachers, DND personnel, fire and rescue responders, first nation’s members, etc. We have a very diverse demographic team”. Ragunathan explains that keeping a large core group of volunteers is important, “as you are probably aware, disasters are increasing by the day across the country and globally. Therefore we want to build upon this team by recruiting more volunteers that can help out either being on call or on standby for domestic/international deployments. We offer extensive training and resources to the responders so that they can serve the most vulnerable in an efficient manner.”

If you would like to learn more about volunteering for the Cold Lake Personal and Emergency Response Disaster Assistance Team, attend the March 23rd open house at the Cold Lake FCSS, from 6:00 – 8:30 pm.