By Spencer Sterritt

P.A. St. John Ambulance opens their doors for more volunteers

Oct 22, 2015 | 6:45 AM

St. John Training Centre opened their doors Tuesday in the hope of getting some new volunteers.

This is the first open house that St. Johns Ambulance in Prince Albert has had.

The idea came to Ashley Balysky, director of community services and Haven Seto, community services coordinator, respectively, when they attended Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s welcome week in September.

“We had all these kids going ‘yeah this volunteer stuff sounds awesome,’” Balysky said. “So we thought lets have an open house and get these kids involved.”

The St. John Training Centre runs two important programs in Prince Albert.

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The medical first responder program involves volunteers going to community events where first-aid may need to be administered.

Dog therapy is the second and more popular program. Dogs are nationally certified to be therapy dogs, and then visit long term care centres, group homes and pretty much anywhere people think they might need some pet therapy.”

Kelly Pollock has been St. John’s regional manager for the past 28 years and has seen volunteer numbers dwindle.

“We used to have a really active volunteer base, over 20 members,” she said. “When the older people who were volunteering have left due to health reasons and age, recruiting people becomes rather difficult.”

She’s not positive about what has caused the flow of volunteers to stop, but she said every organization is facing the dilemma of not being able to find volunteers.

Lauren Haubrich, one of St. Johns Ambulance’s youngest volunteers at 23, thinks it’s a catch-22.

“Youth are involved in things that they want to go to and participate in, but on the other hand St. John doesn’t get those requests because there’s not enough people,” she said.

She said volunteers in larger cities such as Saskatoon get to work at Roughriders games and at music festivals like Craven Country Jamboree.

Volunteers with Prince Albert St. John’s Ambulance were unable to volunteer at the Borealis Music Festival this past summer due to a lack of volunteers.

On Twitter: @princealbertnow

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