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Vernon's ESS reception centre at Kal Tire Place has processed over 800 fire evacuees. (file photo/Vernon Matters Staff)
By Pete McIntyre
Kal Tire Place

More than 800 evacuees use Vernon reception centre, volunteers offering to help

Aug 21, 2023 | 3:00 PM

It’s been a busy place.

The City of Vernon said its emergency social services (ESS) reception centre at Kal Tire Place has registered about 840 evacuees since opening last Thursday (Aug. 17), with most of those from the Central Okanagan.

The city has also had a number of community members reach out and ask how they can volunteer with ESS and be part of this current response.

“At this time, we are not calling for new volunteers,” Christy Poirier, manager of communications and grants, said. “We have a strong pool of trained ESS volunteers who have been ready and willing to assist as we’ve needed over the last several days. They’ve done an outstanding job, as was noted in [Sunday’s] media release.”

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However, Poirier said if people are still interested, they are encouraged to visit the City of Vernon website and take a look at the ESS program information.

“In order to work in the reception centre, they will need to fill out a volunteer application. Those applications would then need to be processed and then applicants would need to receive some training and going through an on-boarding process,” Poirier explained.

Poirier added as they are currently processing a high volume of evacuees, they are unable to process new applications right now, but added “this is on our team’s radar and we are having discussions about if or when we may need to onboard new applicants.”

“If someone has applied to volunteer but they haven’t heard back from us yet, we just request patience and understanding, and we want them to know we will get to their application as soon as possible,” Poirier added.

by Pete McIntyre
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What Matters

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8.1% Unemployed
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