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At the beginning of September, I had the opportunity to travel to Prince George, B.C. in response to the B.C. Wildfires as a Communications Responder. During my time there, I had a chance to experience, support, and learn about the operations of a disaster response for the first time. If I had to describe my deployment experience in two words I’d say: eye-opening and fulfilling. Here are three insights that best capture my deployment experience:

​While the fire was over, the stress remained in 100 Mile House, a small community in the B.C. interior that evacuated for 16 days during the 2017 wildfires.

​The Packing House is a meeting place for the people of Spences Bridge, whether it’s to have a cup of coffee, catch up on the latest news and gossip, or chat with owner and local politician Steve Rice.
It’s also a stopping point for people on the road to elsewhere in B.C. Or, it was, until last summer when massive wildfires stopped the flow of tourist traffic through Spences Bridge.

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, read about Bill and Paula Green, who have been married for 32 years and have volunteered together with the Canadian Red Cross for 11. 

When a disaster strikes, the Canadian Red Cross quickly mobilizes to meet people’s basic needs: shelter, food, clothing, registration and so on. But there’s another aspect of the Red Cross response that’s perhaps not as well-known, but is equally important to the people impacted by the disaster:  our work to support psychosocial wellbeing in times of crisis and through the long recovery phase after disasters.

The holidays can be difficult for some, including those who have experienced an emergency or disaster such as wildfires and flooding that affected many throughout the country this year. We’ve gathered some information on stress as well as tips for taking care of yourself and others during the holidays in this booklet, Moving through Recovery: a guide during the holidays.

When Williams Lake resident Cindy Lahaise returned home after having to evacuate this summer, she decided she wanted to help her community recover. Cindy jumped at the chance to become a volunteer with the Canadian Red Cross at her local resiliency centre. 

Four days before the evacuation order was issued for the town of Williams Lake, Danny and Leeyann Allan made the decision to leave their home and head up to Prince George. They shared with us about some of the kindness they found along the way.