§ 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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APRIL 17-27th

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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.

wt

| Thornhill
Neighbourhood Pub
Crib Night
- Tuesday, April 23rd
last tournament of the season

_

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Remember our SUNDAY BRUNCHES
11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

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Thornhill Neighbourhood Pub
2387 Thornhill St, Terrace

phone 638-8404